MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/9 August) – Bukidnon Gov. Alex Calingasan’s State of the Province Address (SOPA) will come in way behind the others but it will be delivered after the different offices at the Capitol are done with the assessments of the past year’s performance and the planning for next year’s.
The Provincial Planning and Development Office announced this today, day one of the two-day provincial implementation review and 2012 annual planning workshop at The Gardens, this city.
Ma. Carmen Unabia, head of the province’s economic enterprise development and management office (PEEDMO), said in her opening remarks that this is the first time that the provincial government is doing such scheme, although she said they had been doing it ever since in her office.
Calingasan was not around as he was having a meeting in Manila.
The workshop gathered heads of Capitol offices and divisions who were grouped according thematically clustered sectors, namely, infrastructure, economic, social services, and institutional development.
Gemma Borreros, workshop facilitator, clarified that they intended not to outline activity based accomplishments from each office but significant accomplishments in the sectors and subsectors considered.
Later in the workshop, she said, they will find out what factors facilitated and hindered the performance.
The workshop also focused on what needs to be done and what major considerations have to be taken for 2012.
In his presentation of the 2010 State of the Local Governance Report (SLGR), Jesrel Mangubat, deputy provincial planning and development coordinator, said Bukidnon has excellent performance in human resource management and development, forest ecosystem management, freshwater ecosystem management, participation, and transparency.
But the provincial government was rated “low” in support to agriculture and entrepreneurship, business, and industry promotion.
The SLGR, a self-assessment tool for LGUs provided by the Department of Interior and Local Government, is a comprehensive yet concise report, which essentially discusses the LGU’s state of performance, productivity and development conditions
It covers the provincial government sectors covering administrative governance, social governance, economic governance, en
vironmental governance, participation, transparency, and financial accountability.
According to the SLGR, Bukidnon has “high bu
t not excellent” performance in peace, security and disaster risk management; development planning, revenue generation, resource utilization and allocation, urban ecosystem management, health services, support to education services, and financial accountability.
The presentation drew negative reactions from the other officers present in the workshop.
Mangubat himself admitted that the ongoing workshop dubbed provincial implementation review, not the SLGR alone, should be used for planning and budgeting.
One of the sessions on Day 1 was a review on the executive-legislative agenda (ELA) where gains and pitfalls of the provincial government were identified.
Representatives from civil society, the media, tribal associations, academe, and management consultants were also invited to the workshop. (Walter I. Balane / MindaNews)
