SOPA: "Bohol better off"

As he will wrap up his last term as Bohol's chief executive, Gov. Erico Aumentado yesterday highlighted the projects he will leave to his province-mates as part of a "legacy." Aumentado delivered the one-hour State-of-the-Province Address (SOPA)

ACHIEVEMENTS! Gov. Erico Aumentado delivers his State-of-the-Province Address (SONA) as he enumerated the outstanding accomplishments of the provincial government under his stewardship.

Also in attendance during his SONA were Finnish investors - Krister Still, Mike Jurvelius of Barbadenis Ooy, and Finland Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines president Peter Makitalo, escorted by forester and environment consultant June Alvarez - who are in the province to sign the agreement on their investment of US$ 20 million or P1 billion for the first 5,000 hectares of timberland and another P1 billion for the expansion area of additional 5,000 hectares.

The governor delivered the SOPA as part of the regular session of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan held out of the session hall yesterday in the presence of Vice-Gov. Julius Caesar Herrera and PB Members Ma. Fe Lejos-Camacho, Yul Lopez, Alfonso Damalerio II, Amalia Tirol, Josephine Socorro Jumamoy, Concepcion Lim, Aster Piollo, and Corazon Galbreath.

In the SOPA, the governor cited the significant role of Team Bohol in addressing insurgency by solving poverty through livelihood programs and supporting infrastructures - the prominent accomplishment of the present administration.

Aumentado attributed to Team Bohol's Poverty Reduction for Peace and Development program, the feat of changing the image of Bohol that met his administration in 2001 - widespread poverty breeding insurgency with three of every 10 barangays being hotbeds for conflict, and unemployment.

The situation led to the creation of the Bohol Poverty Reduction Program in July 2001 and has stretched the distribution of blessings to the barangay level until these last months of Aumentado's term.

The provincial government created over 20,000 new jobs in the farm and tourism, bannering agriculture and tourism as economic drivers of Bohol.

With his convergence strategy - pooling different government agencies and foreign funding agencies in the implementation of development programs and infrastructure projects - the administration hauled the province from three decades of poverty, even being listed among the top 20 poorest provinces in the country and the tagged as the center of communist insurgency in Eastern and Central Visayas.

Few months before the governor steps down by end of June, Bohol had already slipped down from its rank as No. 16 among the poorest provinces in the country and the 305 of the 1,109 barangays or 30 percent previously plunged in insurgency - either influenced, infiltrated or threatened, now off the hook.

Late last year, the military already declared Bohol as insurgency-free which was the basis for the 8th Infantry Division (Storm Troopers) under Maj. Gen. Arthur Tabaquero, Police Regional Director Lani-o Nerez, and the governor to sign a resolution last February 11, declaring Bohol as insurgency-free province and eventually categorized in the National Internal Security Plan as a "cleared" area.

For the effective strategy, the national government adopts the Bohol experience as model in the national in addressing insurgency and will be replicated in different areas of the country plaqued by insurgency.

Aumentado admitted, though, the difficult part of starting a minority administration with only four party-mates in Lakas-NUCD-CMD at the PB, excluding then the vice governor and nine members.

"In addition, I was to work with the heads of a bureaucracy whose loyalty was not mine at the start of my administration. However, I was determined to install good governance with transparency and accountability, building alliances and bridges with those who were against me and the other sectors of government, the churches, civil society, the military and the police, as well as the communities, especially those affected by the terrifying insurgency problem," the governor said.

The governor had to make a series of confidence-building measures and with the aid of the Executive-Legislative Development Advisory Council.

His administration survived this situation by launching the policy of building upon the accomplishments of his predecessors to show sincerity of developing Bohol together.

To focus on poverty reduction efforts, Aumentado created the Bohol Poverty Reduction Management Office, the Bohol Employment and Placement Office, the Bohol Tourism Office and the Center for Culture and Arts Development.

Sustaining the programs already started by his predecessors, Aumentado's administration completed the Let's Help Bohol Program funded by the Heifer Philippines International, and even expanded it to a total of 31 municipalities with the support of the Livestock Integration for Food and Family Enhancement (LIFFE) and the Confederation of Boholanos in USA and Canada (Conbusac) that "provided nitrogen tanks to store semen for artificial insemination and additional carabaos for the poor in the hinterlands".

"Today, the project under the leadership of Dr. Stella Marie Lapiz, has generated a total of P117,192,379.78 in terms of counterparting and pass-on of carabaos, goats, swine, ducks and chickens to new beneficiary families and people's organizations," the governor cited.

Diverting from the conventional military approach in addressing the communist insurgency problem, the Aumentado-Herrera administration integrated and redirected the provincial government's programs towards poverty reduction and the implementation of "major ODA-funded projects such as the P392-million Kalahi-CIDSS, the P230-million Agrarian Reform Community Development Phase 2 and the P280-million Land Administration Management Project 2(LAMP 2) funded by World Bank.

Other programs directed in the convergence strategy include the P124.10-million Belgian Integrated Agrarian Reform Support Program (BIARSP) for rural infrastructure, livelihood and job generation, education and public health, and the P260.5-million AusAID-funded Philippines-Australia Community Approach Program (Pacap), the Philippines-Australia Human Resource Development Facility (PAHRDF), Local Governance for Development Program (LGDP), and the P420-million Provincial Roads Management Facility (PRMF) for five years.

The province is now in the next level of addressing the insurgency - sustaining peace and development - wherein Team Bohol is the key player and Bishop Leonardo Medroso chairs the Local Peace Forum.

Through the efforts of Team Bohol, having the military and police commanders as vital partners, the United Nations Development Programme Philippines 2005 Human Development Index Report declared by 2005 that Bohol was already out of the Club 20 and slipped down to no. 41 in the list of poorest provinces in the country.

"In 2006, the National Statistics Coordination Board of NEDA reported that Bohol went up higher in the stratum of highly performing provinces in poverty reduction and has further slipped to rank 52 after its poverty level reduced to 26.7 percent.

Having hurdled the challenges of starting an administration in a province plunged in poverty, Aumentado further dreams big for Bohol.

Up next in the coming months are the P800-million upgrading of Malinao dam to increase the present capacity of 5 million cubic meters to 10 million cubic meters and irrigate an additional 2,700 hectares of ricelands, establish multi-industry cluster in the northeastern corridor, establish a bio-ethanol processing plant from cottoni red algae with a research and development center to support it, P60-million small reservoir irrigation projects, provincewide implementation of e-TRACS to improve real property tax collection and eventually increase the revenues of local government units, Panglao-Bohol International Airport Development Project, barangay masterplanning, waterworks system, electrification projects, third phase of the Bohol Irrigation Project and the Bohol Circumferential Road Improvement Project and the development of Anda Peninsula highway, among others. (Angeline Valencia)