Galing Pook Winners

If you think all is lost in Mindanao due to the spate of killings and kidnappings, you are wrong. It is because these unfortunate events are limited to a few places. In fact most of the 33 provinces that comprised the island of Mindanao are relatively peaceful.

That is why it is not very surprising that, of the 14 Galing Pook Foundation awardees, 5 are from Mindanao. The other winners are from Metro Manila which garnered 5 awards, Visayas 2 and Luzon 2. These 14 winners were selected out of 123 nominees.

Galing Pook Award is given to promote excellence in local government. The criteria for judging were "Innovation, positive results, transferability and sustainability, and efficiency." This year's panel of judges was chaired by former economic development Secretary and now an Inquirer columnist Solita Monsod.

These are the winners from Mindanao:

1. Sarangani Province for its Kalinaw Sarangani Program which brought together different groups for peace-building;
2. Midsayap town of North Cotabato for its "Natularan Mu" project which is an alliance of six barangays to resolve conflicts;
3. Surallah, South Cotabato for its "paraiso Himsug" project which promotes organic agriculture and alternative medicine;
4. Malaybalay City of Bukidnon for its Integrated Survey System of development planning based on the needs of the different departments;
5. Barangay Barobo in Valencia City, Bukidnon for promoting vermiculture as a livelihood program in its "Project Bulawan".

On the other hand, the winners from Luzon and Visayas are:
1. Tabuk, Kalinga for its "Matagoan Program" of settling tribal disputes;
2. Bulacan Province for recognizing and honoring outstanding projects;
3. Marikina City starting a clean food and water laboratory;
4. Taguig City for its system of giving identification cards to residents for purposes of providing discounted social services;
5. Quezon City empowering barangays to develop parks through cost sharing
6. Makati City for its "Baratilyo ng Basura sa Barangay" which is a waste diversion and reduction program;
7. Paranaque City for its "Adolescent Friendly Reproductive Health Services" or ARFHS;
8. Barangay Luz in Cebu City for its "Kuarta sa Basura" program; and
9. Bayawan City in Negros Oriental for its "Ecosan" project of treating and converting human waste into fertilizers and soil conditioners.

These winning projects will each receive P100,000.00 from the Department of Interior Local Government.

Congratulation to the people behind these winning projects. I hope that all of these projects will be improved further and be replicated all over the country.