Local Governance Programs for 2012 Contents 3 4 5 6 7 7 8 8 9 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 33 35 The Galing Pook and its Partners Global Public Innovation Network Message from His Excellency President Benigno S. Aquino III An Enduring Partnership for Excellence and Innovation DILG Secretary Mar Roxas Making Heroes Out of Ordinary People GPF Chair Ma. Nieves Confesor Growing Communities of Champions FES Resident Representative Berthold Leimbach Path to Responsible Commitment and Excellent Service LBP President and CEO Gilda Pico Supporting and Promoting Sustainable Initiatives DBP President and CEO Gil Buenaventura Galing Pook Hymn QUEST for Quality Education Province of Sarangani Improving Lives through Tourism Municipality of Loboc Simple. Speed. Service. Valenzuela City TEACH the Special Children Mandaluyong City Garden of Life Mandaluyong City Barangay Governance Plus Barangay Poblacion, Tupi, South Cotabato Dinagyang: Beyond Festivals Iloilo City Have Waste, We’ll Manage! Dumaguete City Bring Your Own Bag Muntinlupa City Farmer Entrepreneurship Program San Jose City 2012 Galing Pook Awards Finalists 2012 National Selection Committee Galing Pook Foundation Board of Trustees and Secretariat Cover design, magazine layout, and articles by Allen M. Mariano • References supplied by LGUs • Photos courtesy of LGUs and from Galing Pook Files 2 • Galing Pook 2012
T he Galing Pook awards is a pioneering program that recognizes innovation and excellence in local governance. It started in October 21, 1993 under the joint initiative of the Local Government Academy-Department of the Interior and Local Government, the Ford Foundation, and other individual advocates of good governance from the academe, civil society and the government. As Galing Pook embarks on its 20th year, more than 270 programs from at least 160 local government units have already won recognition, including the current batch of 2012 awardees. The Galing Pook winners are chosen each year from a wide array of programs from local governments after undergoing a rigorous multi-level screening process. The winning programs are selected based on positive results and impact, promotion of people’s participation and empowerment, innovation, transferability and sustainability, and efficiency of program service delivery. + 20 Vision We are a leading resource institution that promotes innovation, sustainability, citizen empowerment, and excellence in local governance. Mission We promote excellence in local governance through recognition, sharing of information and support of efforts to replicate best practices at the local level. We encourage partnerships among civil society organizations, private sector, and government agencies at local, national and global levels to improve quality of life. The Partners FORDFOUNDATION Galing Pook 2012 • 3
T he Global Public Innovation Network, established in 2002, is a collaborative network of 10 public policy awards programs from around the globe. With support from the Ford Foundation and contributions by the individual programs, the Innovation Network gathers and disseminates knowledge about innovations in public service provision, public action, and governance. These innovations represent significant contributions to the collective well-being of citizens and to the reduction of social, economic, political, gender, and ethnic inequalities. By sharing successful local practices through an international network, the impact of each awards program can extend far beyond its country’s borders. Innovation Network activities include workshops, research, and publications. Partner Programs • American Indian Tribes in the United States of America: Honoring Nations Program • Brazil: Public Management and Citizenship Program • Chile: Citizen Participation and Public Politics Program • China: The Innovations and Excellence in Chinese Local Governance Program • East Africa: The Mashariki Innovations in Local Governance Awards Program • Mexico: Government and Local Management Award • Peru: Participation and Local Management Program • Philippines: The Galing Pook Foundation Awards for Outstanding Local Government Programs • South Africa: Impumelelo Innovations Award Trust • United States of America: Innovations in American Government Awards Program Source: Harvard Kennedy School: Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation Website (http://www.ash.harvard.edu/Home/Programs/Innovations-in-Government/GlobalPublic-Innovation-Network), accessed January 5, 2012. 4 • Galing Pook 2012
MANILA My warmest greetings to the awardees of the 2012 Annual Galing Pook Awards. As public servants, we hold a clear mandate to provide transformative leadership, which advances our communities and elevates the lives of our constituents. Entrusted with this position, we have the tremendous opportunity to determine our course towards progress and build a brighter future for our fellowmen. On this occasion, we celebrate the achievements of our local govement executives who spearhead our localities’ movement towards sustainable development. May the honors bestowed in this event deepen the resolve of our awardees to engage in participatory leadership and inspire more initiatives that further our mileage in good governance. I also extend my gratitude to Galing Pook Foundation for duly recognizing the hard work of our leaders, among whom stood the late Sec. Jesse Robredo. I trust that you will continue to rally with us in upholding the transparency, accountability, and integrity that he so honorably embodied. Striving to cultivate Jesse Robredo’s tsinelas leadership, let us emulate his humility, his unshakable character, and his commitment to honest and excellent service. United in our objective, we can stem corruption from the grassroots, and establish structures of empowerment that secure progress for every Filipino. BENIGNO AQUIN BENIGNO S. AQUINO III GN N MANILA January 2013 Galing Pook 2012 • 5
I t is my great honor and privilege to be part of the 20th edition of the Galing Pook Awards, officially marking two inspiring decades of learning and sharing the best that our local government units have to offer and share with the rest of the country. We have been truly blessed to witness the blooming and spreading of excellence and innovation among our LGUs that made the selection of the annual awardees a much tougher job because today, good governance practices have become the norm rather than the exception among our LGUs. True to its mission, Galing Pook has successfully promoted excellence through the recognition of exemplary LGU practices and programs that, at their very core, tremendously improved the quality of life of our people. Moreover, the continuing partnership between government, through the Department of the Interior and Local Government, and the private sector, through the Galing Pook Foundation, has enabled the search for excellence and innovation to go on unhampered by politics and narrow personal interests. This enduring partnership is another cornerstone upon which the PNoy administration is building a brighter and more prosperous future for our people – our true bosses whose aspirations we could never afford to ignore nor take for granted. My warmest congratulations not only to the winners and finalists but to the hundreds of LGUs who, although they did not make it to the final list, have nevertheless enriched all of us by sharing and contributing their ideals for the betterment of Philippine society. Mabuhay tayong lahat! MAR ROXAS Secretary 6 • Galing Pook 2012
T oday, the challenge is to promote a more inclusive growth process— one that sustains competitiveness and robust economic growth performance, while ensuring that wealth creation provides the widest possible benefits, notably for the expanding low-income population, the so-called “bottom of the pyramid.” Growth alone, while critically important, does not necessarily alleviate poverty and reduce inequality. There is convincing evidence that inequality retards and renders growth “sporadic” and shortlived in developing economies such as ours. Thus, twenty years and more than 270 awardees later, the search for innovative sustainable arrangements continue to be “co-created” by local governments and communities, even in the most challenging of conflict conditions, to ensure that growth is for ALL, and not captured by an elite. “Acting locally,” such local governance mechanisms have been sustained by transparency, clear accountability, expanding inclu- sion of all stakeholders, and their increasing empowerment. Effective local governance initiatives have embraced the wisdom and confidence of communities to have the courage to create. Each award serves to accelerate the growth of more innovative solutions to the complex challenges faced by all today. For many of those in leadership, whether exercised with authority or not, the choice to lead has been marked by such courage to create. For many of those who have been recognized, the programs have produced leaders, not with the capital “L,” but by a growing band of innovators, leaders with a “small l,” as some would say. We must remember what Secretary Jesse Robredo said at the commencement exercises at the Ateneo some years ago: “Our political history has shown that we have put the burden of running this country on our ‘best’ people for too long. And yet the gap between rich and poor has grown wider. For this country to succeed, we must make heroes of the ordinary people. We need to make heroes of ourselves.” We, whether public or private, fail to create the future not because we fail to predict it but because we fail to imagine it. Congratulations to the awardees and finalists—when ordinary people take it upon themselves to be heroes, to have the courage to create and co-create! They have imagined and they have co-created. Ma. Nieves R. Confesor Chairperson Galing Pook Foundation Growing Communities of Champions A round the Philippines we see islands of good governance where best practices both by local governments and civil society have inspired action and development in local communities. We see pockets of innovation where government and citizens alike join hands in making sure that change can happen, change that does not tear down but instead builds on the strength of local histories and resources in order to respond to common problems that face Filipinos. This 2012, the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung is privileged to witness these pockets grow into communities of champions in our continued partnership with the Galing Pook Foundation, the awardsgiving body that promotes and recognizes innovation, sustainability, citizen empowerment and excellence in local governance. Through Galing Pook, these islands have become more and more a nation of reformers. As advocates of effective and ethical local governance, these local governments have been given their due recognition and have been brought together to build a more formidable alternative to how local governance had been practiced in the country. Galing Pook has further encouraged participatory local governance to be at the heart of just local development. Through citizen and stakeholder input and participation, local governance can take into account the local realities and thereby promote sustainability and fairness in the use of resources for the benefit of generations to come. More importantly, Galing Pook has paved the way to ensure that these practices are not only shared and popularized but also rolled out for replication in other local communities. The Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung congratulates Galing Pook for its successful round for this year, awarding ten outstanding local government units for their exemplary programs on health, education, justice, and community building. We also applaud the awardees and their partners for improving their local service delivery, specifically on achieving the Millennium Development Goals, increasing access to education, information and justice, as well as promoting peace and development through empowering the local citizenry. Finally, we invite other practitioners and stakeholders to learn from these successes and in (and for) their own communities, do great things! Berthold Leimbach Resident Representative Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung – Galing Pook 2012 ce7 Philippine Offi•
O ur warmest regards to the recipients of the Galing Pook Awards for 2012. Your relentless efforts and the worthy endeavors you have undertaken have given rise to promising change in communities striving for lasting economic and social growth. LANDBANK realizes as well the significant role of the Galing Pook Foundation in helping bridge the gap and bring forth opportunities for people and places often eclipsed by chance and circumstance. The hundreds of programs effected by local government units since the organization’s inception is a clear indication of the major impact that our common thrust of integrating sustainable development brings across the countryside. The success achieved by these various LGUs is not just the triumph of a few. It is an achievement reflective of the perseverance and sincerity of the people wanting to help and be helped with sustaining necessities that should be basic to all Filipinos. As our local governance continues on its path to responsible commitment and excellent service, we at LANDBANK will be as steadfast in building and opening more doors for the marginalized sectors. We will likewise continue to be a staunch ally of our LGUs in bringing to fruition more projects and programs aimed at serving our countrymen. Ms. Gilda E. Pico President and CEO Land Bank of the Philippines For more outstanding and fruitful years ahead, we wish all of this year’s awardees the best. Again, our congratulations! Supporting and Promoting Sustainable Initiatives T he Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) congratulates the awardees and finalists of this year’s Galing Pook Awards! DBP has always taken pride in supporting and promoting the sustainable initiatives of local government units (LGUs)—achievements that our current roster of Galing Pook awardees have successfully attained to encourage socio-economic development in their constituencies. As the drivers of growth in their areas of influence, and as exemplars of best practices in local governance, outstanding performances by LGUs certainly deserve recognition and accolades. These LGUs also deserve support, hence, DBP’s long-standing partnership with the sector. The Bank has been working closely with LGUs for the provision of basic services, includ- 8 • Galing Pook 2012 ing water systems, infrastructure, health care facilities, school buildings, housing projects, and other programs that address the essential needs of community development. And in the years ahead, DBP will continue to expand its role as a lending specialist and provider of consulting services to LGUs to craft sustainable projects integrated to the national development agenda. To our present and prospective partners in the LGU sector, partnering with DBP could not come at a better time. Indeed, the economic climate has changed for the better. Optimism is running high, with the global community looking at our country as one of the more promising economies in Asia. We can, together, take advantage of this momentum and join hands in effecting positive socio and economic changes for our country. Mr. Gil A. Buenaventura President and CEO Development Bank of the Philippines
music and lyrics by Gary Granada vocals: Gary Granada, Bayang Barrios, Noel Cabangon, Shane and Dave of Crazy as Pinoy, PETA kids, Luke Granada Ang aming adhikain Ay simple lang naman Sapat sa pangunahing Mga pangangailangan Saan mahahagilap Ang mga munting pangarap Makaigpaw sa hirap Ang sabi ng iba, ang galing ng Pilipino Maalwang hinaharap Magaling na mang-isa, mandaraya, manloloko Ang sakit sa tenga, kahit di mo matanggap Sa punyagi at kusa Ganyan daw talaga, yan ang sabi ng lahat Munting pamayanan Sa husay kinilala Subalit doon sa aming mumunting komunidad Umani ng karangalan Namayani ang maraming kabutihan ang hangad Pinaghusay ang lokal na gobyernong niluklok Kayraming nagsasabing Pinagpala’t natanghal na isang Galing Pook! Ang galing galing daw namin Saan ba nanggagaling Ano ba’ng anting-anting? Ang sabi ng marami, Pilipino ay tamad Walang respeto sa sarili, dangal at dignidad Simple lang yan Palakasang palasak, boto na nilalako Kaya mo yan, Bay! Lider na nagbubuhat ng sarili ring bangko Sa malikhaing paraan, sa paraang malikhain Kasama ang mamamayan, mamamaya’y pagsamahin Pagbabago na lantad, lantad na pagbabago Tuluy-tuloy na pag-unlad, tuluy-tuloy na pag-asenso Di man maikakaila ay huwag nating lahatin Di mo rin maitatatwa, di man sukat akalain Magandang mga balita sa mga suluk-sulok Kayraming halimbawa ng mga Galing Pook Sa dami ng balakid Sa dami ng hadlang Ang diwang nalulupig Nagtitiis na lang Visit www.galingpook.org to download lyrics and music Ngunit huwag kang papayag Huwag kang pabubuway Tadhanang ating palad Nasa ating kamay Chorus counterpoint: Galing Pook.. Galing Pook 2012 • 9
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