BEP team meets anew for program’s reimplementation, evaluation
The Barangay Empowerment Program (BEP) Task Force, the Evaluation Committee, and the Secretariat have gathered recently for a consultative meeting at the Villa Amor Hotel in the City of Koronadal .
The meeting was held to discuss matters and carry out plans to generate valuable ideas in preparation for the re-implementation of the BEP and the upcoming evaluation for this year and the succeeding year.
During the discussion, the approval of the procedures for the release of BEP prizes (50% under the 20% Local Development Fund) and the approval of the requirements for the release of 75% support to qualified barangays were tackled.
As motioned and approved by the members of the BEP Task Force, the release of these prizes and the support for these barangays will now be supported by a joint Barangay Council and Barangay Development Council (BDC) Resolution.
Also, the team has approved the inclusion of “Linis Kapaligiran” under its capacity building program, which will be spearheaded by Task Force Kalinisan, Task Force Kaayusan, and the City Environment and Natural Resources Office.
Koronadal City Planning Development Officer and the head of the BEP Secretariat, Engr. Agnes Daguro, said that they will continue to improve the program, particularly in the core areas, especially now that changes have been made.
“We will continue to enhance the program, especially in some core areas. For this year, we will only have one evaluation of the six core areas. However, with the help of our City Community Affairs Office, hopefully we will have a bi-monthly evaluation of puroks and barangays as to cleanliness and roadside beautification,” Daguro said.
The City Planning Chief also admitted that it has been quite a challenge for the team during the past few years of the implementation of the program. Nevertheless, they vowed to work even harder to make the barangays understand the significance of this program.
“This is the fourth year of the implementation of the BEP. It’s a bit challenging, but we have to go on with the implementation of this to win the support of all barangay captains of the City of Koronadal, wherein they have to understand that this is not only for our city mayor, not only for us who are working, but this is actually for the good of our people in the city and for the development of our city as the host of the regional center, and that we would like to be the most economically dynamic city in the region”, Daguro underscored.
For the past years of its implementation, Daguro likewise pointed out that they had already seen the weaknesses of the barangays; thus, they decided to conduct a one-time evaluation instead of conducting a series of evaluations in a year. As part of these changes, they are willing to go down to the barangays and provide them with the results of the previous evaluations so they can find out their weak points and know how far they have accomplished.
On the other hand, the evaluators and the task force have raised concerns, suggestions, and recommendations to strengthen and improve the implementation of the program this year.
Core Area 5 Health and Nutrition Program Evaluator Nancy Adalin suggested that the team should assist the barangays through proper information dissemination. “Why don’t we compile the policies and make a flyer to be given to them?” Adalin said.
City Tourism Officer Elric Batilaran proposed that the team should consider documenting everything that would greatly benefit the beneficiaries.
“We have to document everything that we are doing, and each step that we are doing for them that has valuable impacts, we will consider that, and those that did not actually meet our expectations, we will do another set of assessments,” Batilaran emphasized.
Batilaran added that in order to know how each of these core areas will be undertaken, the team has to come up with a manual focusing on the core areas. According to him, it will be a very tedious process, but it’s one way of making it easier for them to take note and implement the program.
Meanwhile, Koronadal City’s focal person for education, Jonathan Enmanuel, said that aside from the barangay council and the BDC, he is proposing for the inclusion of the school governance council to assist the barangay. According to him, the best avenue to empower the community is to tap the school, as it is one way of empowering the community.
“With the inclusion of the joint barangay council and barangay development council, I would also like to suggest the inclusion of the school governance council, which includes the PTA and the SSG. In most cases, the barangay council taps teachers to prepare the documents, and we cannot deny that. I think that is the best way to involve our community”, Enmanuel said.
Moreover, Enmanuel suggested raising the incentives to barangays. He likewise said that it is best that the hall of fame awardee, which is Barangay Caloocan, and other model barangays open their documents to be replicated by other barangays.
City Local Government Operations Officer Jennifer Fernandez believes that it’s time to finalize matters relative to the Barangay Empowerment Ordinance, as City Mayor Eliordo U. Ogena has always wanted to have this program institutionalized.
“This is a very important activity because we will be going to finalize all the agreements, policies, and guidelines in preparation for the passage of this Barangay Empowerment Ordinance. We already know that our city mayor is very passionate about this program, and with the cooperation of everyone, I hope that we will be able to finalize everything,” Fernandez said.
With the proposal and suggestions of some members of the task force, a seminar-workshop will be scheduled to discuss the formulation of the proposed BEP manual, which highlights the various core areas of the program.