Outstanding feats in public administration

I knew it was a well-deserved award from the University of the Philippines Association to Antique Gov. Sally Zaldivar-Perez. The award was given to the Antique governor last June 24 at the Bahay ng Alumni in UP Diliman, by UP president Dr. Emerlinda Roman, and regent Jaime de los Santos, president of the UP Alumni Association.

Her having pulled out Antique from the Club 20 of the poorest provinces in the country could have already entitled her to that award. But what caught my attention was her relentless support for the arts and culture of the province and Western Visayas as a whole. She was also considered responsible for turning Western Visayas into the Philippines "tourism valley."

That was why last Wednesday, my daughter, Mate Espina of Manila Times, and I attended the Regional Development Council meeting at Iloilo City’s Sarabia Manor to interview Sally and watch her handle the RDC meeting.

First, let me point out that one gets the award only after a meticulous assessment and evaluation by the awards committee. And the awardee is just one of the hundreds nominated for the outstanding search for UP alumni in the field of public administration.

There were other awardees. They included Dr. Arsenio Resurreccion, agriculture; Percy Aranador, arts and letters; Victor Valdepenas, business administration; Dr. Lina Diaz de Rivera, education; Dr. Ernesto Sonido, geology; lawyer Andres Gatmaitan, law; Dr. Alberto Victor Romualdez Jr., medicine; Dr. Carmencita Abaquin, nursing; and Dr. Nina Barzaga, public health.

Definitely, as we watched her preside over the RDC meeting, we learned how Gov. Zaldivar-Perez managed to motivate regional line agencies and local government units, including provinces and cities, to achieve more by inaugurating the first competition for "Best Public Sector Projects" which earned for the winners not only plaques of recognition but also cash entitlements.

The winners

First, the board of judges was made up largely from the private sector. This virtually assures a very professional outlook and ensures lack of bias and politics.

The judges met four times during the last quarter of last year to pare down the list from the original 45 projects to only 25. Actually 18 were viewed as potential winners and subjected to field evaluation.

It was only last June 7 when the board of judges reviewed the ratings and determined the winners for CY 2005.

The 10 winners were announced in last Wednesday’s RDC meeting.

Among the regional line agencies, the first prize went to Operation Dikit and Tax Mapping or Tax Compliance of the BIR, which got a cash prize of P40,000 and a plaque of appreciation. The second place went to the TB-DOTS best practices collection of the Regional Health Office. The third prize went to the Kalahi-Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (CIDSS) of the Department of Social Welfare and Development in Western Visayas. The DSWD got P10,000 and a plaque, while Regional Health Office got P20,000 and a plaque.

Among the provincial winners were the Drug Management Reforms of Capiz, which bagged P25,000 and a plaque. Another award with a cash prize of P10,000 and a plaque went to Antique for its Country Program for Children.

The most interesting were the awards for cities. The first prize went to Roxas City’s establishment of diwal sanctuaries. This has revived the angel fish, the most luscious food that has made Capiz the diwal center. Often considered by some gourmets as an aphrodisiac, diwal used to the main product of Valladolid, Pontevedra, and San Enrique in Negros Occidental.

During martial law, President Ferdinand Marcos used to order a kerosene can full of diwal. The late Oscar Zuniga had also asked me for diwal.

Another is the development of the tourism industry of Sipalay. Now, the once underdeveloped area (no thanks to the insurgency problem of the late seventies and eighties) has now gained the attention of outsiders, including foreigners. And there is now a scramble for available sites for development.

For state universities and colleges, the first prize went to the development of the UP Visayas health service unit in Miag-ao as a primary health care hospital. The prize came with P40,000 plus a plaque of recognition. The second prize went to Food-Always-In-The Home (FAITH) Garden Program of the Negros State College of Agriculture in Kabankalan City. It won P20,000 cash and a plaque. The third prize, with P10,000 and a plaque of recognition, was bagged by the State University DYMT Community Radio of the Aklan State University.

These are just among the 10 winners.

DOH DOTS-TB best practices collection

Among the winners that caught my attention was the health department’s TB-DOTS best practices collection. The reason: TB has always been considered a major problem despite the years of efforts of health authorities to control what is an easily communicable ailment.

That’s why I sat down with Dr. Lydia Depra-Ramos, the DOH regional director, for her to explain how the regional office had achieved 95 percent treatment which the World Health Organization had validated. In short, it was not just the locals who have noted this achievement. The world health agency has also confirmed this amazing feat. That puts the Western Visayas on the world health map.

DOTS is actually the acronym for Direct Observe Treatment Service. In short, it does not concern only the campaign against tuberculosis but includes the improvement of the countryside health service outreach.

According to Dr. Depra-Ramos, what the DOH did was to introduce the interzonal approach where local government units combine their resources and facilities to provide medical services to rural folk, especially the indigents.

This includes the Botica sa Barangay project. This has become an ongoing successful program in the pilot towns of Barotac Viejo, Janiuay, and Cabatuan in Iloilo.

Rep. Ignacio Arroyo (fifth district, Negros Occidental) recently launched a program in the fifth district of Negros Occidental.

According to Dr. Depra-Ramos, each botika is provided with a replenishable supply of medicines and drugs initially worth P25,000. These are mostly imported drugs which are just half the price of similar medicines produced locally. So that even with a 30 percent markup, the drugs are still affordable.

The Philippine International Trading Center has put up a Western Visayas Medical Center that will handle the supply of medicines to the barangay botikas.

And to solve the problem of lack of pharmacists, Dr. Depra-Ramos said the botikas have formed a consortium with the town pharmacist as the pharmacist of the interzonal botikas.

In the case of the TB patients, Dr. Depra-Ramos said the case handler is considered co-responsible for his or her ward. In short, if he or she fails to get cured by meticulously adhering to the treatment required, he or she is also a failure.

In the past, the practice of most patients was to abandon the prolonged medication the moment symptoms disappeared. This exposed them to more drug-resistant TB strains later, making their treatment more difficult. The recurring TB could be more virulent.

To a certain extent, that is actually a DOH program. But the point is that the RDC chairwoman has provided the added stimulus to the regional line agencies to do a lot more to measure up to the award.

In short, Gov. Perez had exercised public administration that stirred up the interest of line agencies and local government units and spurred their competitive spirit.