Like other areas in the Eastern Visayas region, Laoang in Northern Samar is vulnerable to strong typhoons and disasters. Unfortunately, the municipality is no stranger to both literal and figurative storms, as it is also devastated by extreme poverty. As such, the residents and the local government unit (LGU) welcomed the Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan-Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (Kalahi-CIDSS), one of the programs of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), when it entered the municipality in 2006.
Support from Kalahi-CIDSS
As a community-driven development (CDD) program, Kalahi-CIDSS seeks to address concerns that citizens themselves identified and implemented. In Laoang, the support provided by the program came in the form of small-scale infrastructures such as school buildings, day care center, drainage canals, bridges, access roads, and water systems.
Beyond the infrastructure support, however, Kalahi-CIDSS sought to train the citizens to tighten the ties among themselves and with their local government unit.
It is the closer links among the people that helped the citizens withstand recent typhoons such as Glenda, Ruby, and even Yolanda.
“Dahil sanay na sa assembleya an mga tawo, hindi naging mahirap na ipatawag sila noong mag-meeting bago dumating ang bagyo. Pag nagsiring na bakwet kayo, ma-bakwet an mga tawo dayon. Waray na diskusyon ,” Vivian Serbito, a Kalahi-CIDSS volunteer from Cahayagan, explained.
Brgy. Cahayagan is an island barangay in Laoang. Island barangays are usually more susceptible to being severely affected by disasters due to their location. However, residents there said they used CDD as a tool against catastrophes. Despite being constantly hit by typhoons, its two Kalahi-CIDSS structures – a school building and a day care center – remain standing, silent testimonies that community-chosen and -implemented projects are able to withstand even the strongest disasters.
Vivian proudly declared, “Confident gud kami nga diri maguba an eskwelahan kay kami gud ito an nag-ayad ngan bumulig kami siton pag-plano. Ngan ito nga school building gin-tindog hiya nga natalikod san hangin kun panahon hin bagyo. Salit waray gud ito kalabti. .”
Brgy. Cahayagan’s school building is a national awardee in 2012 on Best Practice in Social and Environment Safeguard under the grant of the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), which funded the sub-project.
Residents also they said that the solidarity of the people enabled them to support each other even during and after disasters. Their practice of the bayanihan spirit allowed them to recover quickly.
Sheryl Adora Eramia of Brgy. San Antonio said, “Diri na problema pagpatawag ha mga residente kay naka-intindi na hira hit ‘community-driven’. Waray na na-iba ha mga tawo ngan mas nag-upay an ira pagburublig han panahon han kalamidad .” Formerly a Kalahi-CIDSS volunteer, Sheryl is now a member of the Municipal Coordinating Team, the municipal-hired staff implementing the program.
CDD as a way of life
Laoang’s years of experience in implementing Kalahi-CIDSS has convinced the residents and the LGU of the effectiveness of CDD as a development strategy. As such, the local government unit developed and institutionalized it through Municipal Ordinance no. 130 in 2010, creating the Community-Driven Development Center under the Office of the Municipal Mayor.
According to Madeline Ong, the municipal mayor of Laoang, institutionalizing CDD is their way of bridging leadership for citizen’s meaningful participation in local governance and development.
She said, “For us, this means strengthening the roles and functions of the municipal and barangay officials in tandem with civil society organizations (NGOs, People’s and Community-based organizations) in applying the principles of broader participation, greater transparency and public accountability in local development planning, budgeting, implementation and performance monitoring and evaluation.”
The local government of Laoang has also reconstituted the Expanded Municipal Development Council (E-MDC), making the Kalahi-CIDSS’ Barangay Project Management Committee Chairpersons as voting members along with their Punong Barangays. Likewise, the Expanded Barangay Development Councils (E-BDCs) was reconstructed, designating the Kalahi-CIDSS’ Barangay Sub-Project Management Committee (BSPMC) Chairpersons as vice-chairpersons of the barangay captains. The municipality also reformed the Expanded Local Poverty Reduction Action Team (LPRAT) with voting representations from the Kalahi-CIDSS’ BSPMC, Parent-leaders of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, Basic Sector Organizations and Civil Society Organizations.
The BSPMC Chairpersons serve as the de facto leaders of Kalahi-CIDSS volunteers in a community. They are voted by the residents themselves through barangay assemblies.
“The trajectory of Laoang’s governance and development work is towards building self-reliant and self-propelling families and communities,” Mayor Ong said.
According to Mayor Ong, if there is one lesson the people of Laoang learned, it is the power of community spirit and solidarity among different people that can weather any storm or tragedy.
Clearly, any circumstance is bearable when people work together and this is a lesson which has been instilled in the hearts and minds of the locals. ###
