‘Brotherhood’ makes aid effective: WB official

The ‘big brother – small brother’ relationship between the provincial and the municipal governments has made the implementation of the Department of Agriculture – Mindanao Rural Development Program (DA-MRDP) effective, World Bank official said.

WB senior operations officer Carolina F. Geron described this relationship as helping one another particularly poor towns to better serve their communities.

“In this way, the provincial government helps its towns to effectively implement various interventions it (town) employs on the ground,” Geron said.

Geron who is also the MRDP Task team leader heads the current three-week WB review mission which kicked-off early this week here to assess how the program fares in its goals set early this year after an 18-month hiatus.

Meanwhile, on a separate statement recently, WB acting director Maryse Gautier said the Philippines needs a Provincial Development Strategy (PDS) to address the need for coordination among local government units (LGU) in the implementation of foreign-funded projects.

“A (PDS) could help address key issues in governance, capacity building and coordination,” Gautier said.

MRDP, an $83 million long term poverty alleviation program jointly funded by the national government, the local government unit and the World Bank, is geared at increasing incomes and uplifting lives of the poorest of the poor in rural Mindanao. It covers 225 towns in Mindanao’s 26 provinces.

Lesson learned
MRDP Deputy Director said that in the experience during the first phase of the program, one province intervened with the municipal implementation of the infrastructure project since it had difficult time in completing the said project.

“With the strong partnership of the provincial and municipal government all projects have been completed in the first phase. This is among the lessons we learned in our over seven years of implementing development projects around Mindanao,” De Mesa said.

De Mesa added that there are a number of towns that experienced technical and even financial adversity. “Convergence of their efforts ensures the proper delivery of services to the community,” he added.

Convergence
MRDP has been approved in 2007 but it was only in December 2008 when it started to roll out its targeted projects due to the counterparting policy.

The program applies 50-50 cost-sharing where half of the project cost is shouldered by the LGU and the other half is given as grant by the program.

“Some LGUs find it difficult to source out from their local coffer the fifty percent counterpart. As strategy, municipal local chief executives ask the provincial government to help put up the required cash equity,” De Mesa said.

In Sarangani province, the fifty percent equity is shared by the provincial government and the town recipient of MRDP projects.

“The provincial government as big brother to his towns shares 70 percent of its fifty percent counter part making it easier for small brother to come up with its cash value equity,” De Mesa cited one example.

“We are thankful to our governor Migz Dominguez for his generosity in helping particular us in Malapatan a fourth class municipality to come up with our counterpart for our farm-to-market road,” Mayor Aida Singcoy said in a separate interview.

“To extend more help the community, governor Dominguez also distributed corn seeds which encouraged our farmers to expand their production,” the mayor added.

Meanwhile, fifth class town of San Isidro, Davao del Norte has sourced out its funding equity from the RDR WHEELS project of Governor Rodolfo Del Rosario.

San Isidro mayor Tomas Abelita said that without the provincial counterpart it would have been impossible for them to come up with the farm-to-market road which is needed in his locality.

“We are the cacao capital in the country. But we cannot improve our production without infrastructural support to our farmers. Although a little difficult, I really pushed to have a farm-to-market road project to help our local farmers,” mayor Abelita said.

Geron in a forum said she is expecting the technical, even financial assistance of the 26 “big brothers” to the 225 “small brothers” who are at the forefront of MRDP implementation to capitalize on the bulk of funds which have been readied since 2007.

“With this complementation we want to see five to seven more years from now that communities are able to eat three square meals a day and their incomes improved,” Geron said.

Further De Mesa added that at this early, this convergence has resulted to tangible gains in terms of fortifying peace and development across Mindanao.

Mindanao towns enjoy gains of antipoverty aid

More than half of the covered towns of the antipoverty program of the Department of Agriculture in Mindanao have gained results of their investments.

Barely eight months after it formally commenced project implementation, DA’s Mindanao Rural Development Program (MRDP) has benefited 146 of its 225 covered towns across the island regions.

MRDP is an $83 million poverty alleviation program of the government funded through an adaptable program loan from the World Bank plus the funding from the national and local government units (LGUs).

As it gears to improve incomes of small farmers and ensure food security, the program aims establish agricultural infrastructure like farm-to-market roads, irrigation, potable water system and post harvest facilities. Coupled with agri-based livelihood projects, the program takes a more holistic approach to rural development.

In his report during the kick-off activity of the three-week World Bank review mission, Deputy Director Arnel V. De Mesa said that at least 146 towns have reaped initial gains in their investment.

“Six months after we have had our catch-up plan to cover our 18 month delay, we have seen initial and surely promising headway,” De Mesa said.

He explained, however, that the gains are at various levels. “Some have completed the projects, other projects are nearing completion, others are at procurement level, and some more are waiting for notices to proceed,” he said.

To date, De Mesa reported that of the P1.2 billion on the pipeline for infrastructure projects under the Rural Infrastructure (RI) component, P25 million has been completed and many of the on-going projects are within 70 – 85 percent complete.

Out of the P127 million worth of livelihood projects earmarked for the Community Fund for Agricultural Development (CFAD) component for it year one town, over P47million has been completed, close to P22 million are on-going projects while the remaining amount is on the procurement process.

Leading regions and provinces
Of the six regions in Mindanao, Region 10 leads in the implementation of the projects with its total P270 million worth if infrastructure projects on the pipeline. Of this amount, over P17 million worth of farm-to-market roads in Linamon and Salvador towns in Lanao del Norte and Manolo Fortich in the province of Bukidnon have been completed.

Caraga region follows closely with its pipelined P215 million worth of infrastructure projects. The towns of Esperanza, Agusan del Sur and Carmen in Surigao del Sur had finished their farm-to-market roads.

Further the top five performing regions are Agusan del Sur, Sultan Kudarat, Zamboanga del Sur, Lanao del Norte and Sarangani Province.

Fresh opportunities
Beneficiaries said that the projects have brought substantial development and new opportunities for the LGU and the rural folks.

For Malapatan Mayor Aida Singcoy in the Province of Sarangani, the farm to market road which reached to highland villages of B’laans in her town has spurred more economic activities among the lumad farmers and allowed easier delivery of social services on the part of the LGU.

In Kapatagan, Lanao del Norte, Mayor Benjie Baguio said that the road which connected the farthest barangay to the town center contributed much in securing peace and order in his town.

While in Esperanza, Agusan del Sur and Polomolok, South Cotabato the FMR and bridge constructed in their respective areas has reduced transport costs of their produce making them earn better farming incomes.

Other town beneficiaries
Other covered towns are yet to benefit from the program as they are on the process of completing the paper requisite while others are still preparing for their financial counterpart.

The program applies 50:50 cost-sharing scheme for its RI component and P500 thousand for the CFAD component.

Learning life skills on Sundays

Kristine Neñiza receives her diploma, goes to the center stage, and takes a bow. However that simple bow didn’t quite reflect whatever the story behind that piece of paper in her hand, for a diploma on a Sunday College is in fact not a walk in the park.

“Naglisod jud ko oi, dili lalim (I really had a hard time, it’s not easy),” Kristine said.

And not only Krisitine can attest to that, but there are at least 170 graduates of the Assumption College of Davao (ACD) - Sunday College Program. Each has a dream to fulfill, a determination to succeed and heart-warming stories to tell.

Brave Kristine

After a semester as working student, Kristine got sick and decided to go back to their town in Kapalong, Davao del Norte. Determined to finish her two-year computer programming course, she did not abandon her Sunday college with her parents supporting her financial needs.

Kapalong town is about three-hour ride from Davao City where jeepneys and buses are particularly scarce in early morning. To promptly attend to Sunday’s school time which commence at seven in the morning, Kristine has to face the ordeal of her travel.

She has to wake up 1:00 am (on Sunday) while every one else is sound asleep, prepares herself for school to catch the first trip of jeepney at around 2:30 am bound for Tagum City. In this trip, she rides a long with the baskets of farm produce and the bunch of empty fish buckets. Kristine is left with no choice but to take this trip since the next trip is scheduled at 5:00 am., which surely make her tardy in school.

By 4:00 a.m. she’s in already in Tagum and usually arrives at school by six in the morning. Come 9:00 in the evening, the class ends and by then hopes to catch a bus going back to Tagum. Since there is no jeepney plying the route to Kapalong on late night, she has to wait up until 4:30 am (by this time its Monday already) for the first trip back to her town.

Kristine has braved through this ordeal for almost two years.

“I did that for more than a year,” Kristine said.

“What made it more difficult was the fact that I have to bring everything that I need, books, P.E. uniform, rubber shoes, school requirement, some extra clothes,” showing her two packs of paper bags.

“Mura ko’g moilayas, (I seem to stow away)” she quipped.

The Sunday College Program

“Indeed the Sunday College Program has helped a lot of students to finish at least two-year college tech-voc education,” says ACD President Sr. Marieta Banayo of the Missionaries of the Assumption (ma).

Banayo said that when they opened for the Sunday school for college, her sisters in the congregation were not as optimistic as she was. But her confidence with her faculty along with Dr. Rinante Genuba the tech-voc program director, she took the risk.

“It was one of the risks I took as President of the school. We did not know what will happen, my sisters where a little skeptic. But I had faith,” Banayo added.

“We had the idea of opening the Sunday college when some employers of our Sunday high school graduates, approached us and asked whether there won’t be a Sunday college for their “kasambahay” to enroll and continue their education,” she said.

“As president I know it will entail big financial responsibility but it also made me think bitaw no, after they graduate in high school, unsa naman sunod? (what’s next for them?). So I decided to heed the call,” giving a nod as she said.

She disclosed that they had been outlining their plans since 2004 but it was only in 2006 when ACD opened the Sunday College Program for two-year courses of Hotel and Restaurant Management, Computer technology, programming and secretarial.

The Sunday college program had around 200 students for their first batch, “not bad for a start,” Banayo said.

“But the following school year was a big shock for us. A wave of enrollees we did not expect came to the school, even if we did not really campaign for the program,” Banayo blurt out.

“At certain point, we even closed enrolment since our classrooms and laboratories cannot accommodate yet the number of students,” she said.

Option for the poor
“Through this Sunday college program, we continue our preferential option for the poor,” Banayo said stressing that the congregation (Missionaries of the Assumption) stamp their mark to favor the deprived sectors in the community.

She said that the program is intended to help poor but persevering students get a college diploma with the best quality education and training they can use for gainful employment.

“Around 80 per cent of our students are full time working individuals like “kasambahay” (house help), food crew, and others and Sunday is there only time to go to school,” she said .

A number of them are graduates from the school’s Sunday high school program who wanted and are determined to continue their studies.

Transformative education
“We continue to provide the same quality and brand of transformative education for our youth which is to create socially aware individuals in a just and humane society,” she stressed.

With the aim to provide topnotch training, ACD availed of a loan through the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) provided by Asian Development Bank (ADM) and Department of Budget and Management (DBM). They used the fund to establish air-conditioned classrooms and state-of-the-art laboratories.

“Part of providing life transforming education is to provide, affordable and superior skills training through modern facilities and competent instructors,” she said.

“Our instructors, who are both TESDA and CHED certified, share our vision of providing transformative education that the Assumption (College of Davao) is known for,” said Banayo.

On the issue of affordability, Banayo said that even if today’s prices of energy, water and other services are hitting high, the school maintains very affordable fees “and we will not have tuition fee increase next school year.”


Hopes and Dreams
For Kristine “life commences a new beginning and the world has opened up for more opportunities.” And she hopes to tread life much better now with the skills she learned from the school.

Meanwhile, Sister Banayo eyes ACD’s expansion as it will open a day and night program for regular college students and the more slots for Sunday Program to help realize more dreams and continue to provide gainful life skills on Sundays.

In the eyes of Jhana

Curious as every child her age, Jhana Aiza B. Tubo at eight is starting to see the world whole and seeing it in a wider horizon, a clearer perspective and brighter hope for the future.

Her mother Juana never thought this day would ever come. For years, it had constantly pained her to see Jhana, then her three-month old daughter developed a whitish spot in her left eye causing it to be partially blind.

But thanks to some helping hands, in the eyes of Jhana now is a spark of hope.

Perplexed Juana, Jolly Jhana
Estranged from her first husband and a widow from the second, Juana at 44 is left with three kids ages four, five and eight years old Jhana. She is the sole provider for the growing needs of the family. Her meager income of P80.00 a day from vending cigarettes and candies in front of a food chain in Bajada, Davao City would hardly make both ends meet.

“Sa akong kita lisod kaau nga mapatambalan ang mata sa akong anak (with what I earn, it’s impossible to find treatment for the condition of my child),” Juana said with a sense of pity for their circumstance.

Juana has no means to save her child from the developing cataract in the left eye of the bubbly Jhana.

A cataract is opacity of the eyes lens of its capsule. It causes blindness by obstructing passage of light, but the patient can distinguish light from darkness.

“She was three months old when her late father noticed the white spot in her eyes” Juana recounted.

“We observed that the child’s eye was in constant rapid movement, since we didn’t have money, we consulted a “hilot” who told us to just slowly massage the eyeballs of the child which we did,” she added.

“Although we observed that the movement was reduced the whitish spot was still there… until it has gotten wider,” she said.

At five Jhana went to a kindergarten in the community by then her left eye blot out with cataract.

“I could only see lights and blur of colors like red…yellow…” Jhana said.

Despite her condition, Jhana pursued her studies until Grade 1 when some of her classmates picked on her eye condition.

“Pasagdan lang man nako sila. Bahala sila (I don’t really mind them teasing me. I didn’t care what they say about me.)” Jhana said.

Jhana related that she had difficulty at looking at the teacher and whatever is presented in front of the class. She had to turn to her right side so that she could see everything.

“Every time I need to focus on the lessons of the teacher, I turn to my right before I could clearly see. It was difficult but I endured it,” she said in the dialect smiling as if cherishing how she sustained the situation.

Juana said that it was during the kindergarten years of Jhana when she started to find help to treat the worsening condition of the left eye of the child.

“But I couldn’t keep it up. I cannot support even my fare and I don’t know where to turn to,” the exhausted mother said.

Juana said that she really desired to find treatment for her daughter’s condition but their survival was her priority. The measly income is way far to support them.

Teacher’s concern
Concerned about Jhana’s rapidly deteriorating eyes, Mrs. Kathy I. Suarez and Mrs. Ruby Ann G. Ledesma, her Grade 1 teachers at Osmeña Elementary School in Sasa, suggested to her mother to let an eye specialist check the child’s condition.

The teachers brought both mother and daughter to Davao Doctors Hospital for initial check-up for free. According to the result, the child had a cataract with some complications or trauma.

Meanwhile, the teachers suggested some names whom Juana could contact for help.

Further eye examination at DMC, the child’s was noted to have barring complications that it needed an cataract extraction operation which will cost them P49,000.00.

“Asa man ko mangita ana nga kwarta! (Where will I find such amount?!),” she blurted out after learning that the treatment she was looking for was that costly.

Helping hands, generous hearts
To source out funding for the operation, Juana sought help from the local government’s program’s Lingap para sa Mahirap which gave P3,000.00. While the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) gave an additional P10,000. She also approached the Office of the Second District Congressman Vince Garcia which gave P2000.00. Barely P15,000, still a long way.

Determined, she spoke to one of the office staff of Congressman Garcia who referred the case to Atty. Mylene J. Garcia, the office’s Chief of Staff.

The poignant story of Jhana made her pull some strings. She endorsed the case the Maharlika Charity Foundation, Inc. through its Vice President and sustaining board member Dr. Benedict Valdez.

Maharlika Foundation took the case with the required minimum cash counterpart. The foundation took the grant of the Second District Congressman as the Tubo family’s counterpart, the P3000.00 of Lingap for medicine and the P10,000 for the purchase of a special eye lens, and the rest of the P49,000 was shouldered by the foundation.

From then on, everything was arranged. Battery of tests and examinations were conducted and the eye operation was set. Thorugh the expert hands of Dr. Elvira Embalzado the operation procedure was successfully carried out on May 7, 2009 at Maharlike Center.

An Eye Opener
“Ka klaro nako karon, klaro ta gani ka, imong notebook og imong camera (I can see clearly now. I can see you, your notebook and your camera),” gaily said Jhana to the writer.

“Kung mangita lang jud ta og tabang, naa man gyud di ay motabang (If we really seek help, there will always be people who are willing to help), says the relieved mother.

Nagpasalamat gyud ko sa Ginoo, alang sa tanang mga tawo nga mitabang sa amoa kay kung wala ni sila, hangtud karon buta pa gihapon ang wa nga mata sa akong anak (I really thank the Lord for all the people who helped us. Without them the left eye of my daughter would still be blind),” said the teary eyed mother.

Continuing Treatment
Today, Jhana still maintains an eye drop medicine which cost P250.00 per bottle and has to under go monthly check up at the Maharlika Foundation Center. As this require financial expenses too, the office of Congressman Garcia shouldered the amount of medication as well as their fare for the check up until the eye of Jhana will be completely healed.

My prayer

Almighty and most divine Father, creator of everything I see, I feel, and I take. I thank you for the gift of this world, for the gift of life and the blessings of persons. Be with me dear Lord, as I continue the mission of stewardship that you entrusted to me and to us all your people.

Transform us in your heavenly grace that we feel empathy for the plight of our fellow men. I see in the eyes of justice, I breathe in and out the air of honesty and morality, Hear the voices of the desolate and those in need. I speak of words that soothes the pain of those suffering. May I touch others with your healing touch.

I pray to become the channel of your faith, hope, peace and love.

Embrace me with your divine protection as we continue my task of helping and uplifting others, all for the glory of your Name.

Amen.