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Bongao shines with good governance
by: Jeffrey M. Tupas
(Source: Daily Inquirer News Online – 10/27/09)

BONGAO ISLAND, TAWI-TAWI, Philippines—Slowly, the outrigger bancas slither into the Aguada Bay off Bongao Island in Tawi-Tawi, bearing assorted produce and delicacies. Ashore are wooden stalls of cigarettes, noodles, clothes and stacks of DVDs—many of them coming from Malaysia.

The image adds to the frenzy of activities unimaginable in Bongao 15 years ago when the island municipality literally slept.

Now, grocery stores, restaurants, a hotel, mobile phone shops, Internet cafés and a bank with an automated teller machine (ATM) are found in the downtown area and attract a steady stream of people everyday.

Not far from the busy thoroughfare are workers rushing to finish a P20-million two-story public market by March next year. The structure is expected to dominate the skyline there.

Officials say the market will inject new life into the local economy. Their optimism comes with the P1 million a year that they started investing in 2007.

Two decades ago, economic and social development in Bongao had been very slow, Mayor Albert Que says.

"I have seen how Bongao has matured as a local government unit. The things that the people enjoy now are fruits of years of struggle and tough decisions that had to be made," he says.

Que, a member of the municipal council for several years before he was elected mayor, says he knows the island’s potentials that had not been tapped by years of weak governance and misplaced priorities.

"Nothing good was happening to Bongao and to the people. Life was severely difficult and miserable. Prices of basic goods were high and the government was barely doing anything to remedy social problems," Que says. "There were no roads. School buildings and health clinics were dilapidated and there were not enough medicines. The business sector was hesitant to pour in their investment."

With a current population of nearly 100,000, Bongao is a magnet for traders from the island municipalities of Tawi-Tawi and other provinces. Its nearness to Sabah in Malaysia makes it a strategic business hub in this part of Mindanao.

Bongao is the seat of the provincial government. It has at least six colleges and a shopping mall will soon open.

Recently, the government, in partnership with the Growth with Equity in Mindanao project of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), rehabilitated the Bongao airport.

When he assumed office in 2001, the first thing that Que did was to make sure that government resources are efficiently managed. To do this, he says, he had to change the old system of "personally keeping the daily collection of the local government."

Internal control

"The income, the local collection, was not being monitored. The collectors were handling the money according to their personal whims and disposal. The cash is with them, deposited somewhere in their respective houses for days. They could have used the money for their personal needs and wants and nobody would know … they could even fix the books," the mayor says.

Que prescribed something simple: ensure that the day’s collection is deposited in the bank at the proper time. The mayor, a businessman, also hired a certified public accountant to handle the finances of the local government.

"Even that system of handling our resources was questioned by many. But we have to show that we are serious in instituting change for us to be able to respond appropriately to the needs of the people," Que says. "Many things at that time needed to be done—schools, health centers, livelihood for the people, roads—and we could not do it if we do not have money."

"Even the salaries of the employees were affected because of the old practice," he adds.

"It was a change that we must make to deliver what we must to the people," Que says.

Mary Ann Abdulmonap, the municipal accountant, says she had difficulty reconstructing the financial and management systems because of poor record keeping practices.

The municipality then partnered with the National Computer Center, through the help of the Local Governance Support Program in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (LGSPA), to computerize all its departments, putting its governance reforms into high gear.

This paved the way for systematic government transactions, timely disbursement of salaries and tax roll preparations, including financial reports. Bongao was the first LGU in Tawi-Tawi to implement a project of this kind.

Abdulmonap says that with the new system, the municipality was able to start implementing infrastructure projects. Local collections were used as counterpart contributions for foreign-funded infrastructure and other development projects.

The local government has also focused on improving health services and school facilities. More than 2,000 health cards have been distributed so far.

Abdulmonap, who is also concurrently acting municipal administrator, said the initiatives were guided by Bongao’s Comprehensive Development Plan-Executive and Legislative Agenda (CDP-Ela), which was formulated with the support of the LGSPA.

Coastal resource

In its CDP-Ela, one of the priority areas identified was the protection of marine resources.

Que says the officials realized the need to protect the resources when they saw how these were being depleted by years of dynamite fishing and other destructive fishing practices.

With the declaration of the Aguada Bay as marine protected area, some 50 hectares of sanctuary opposite Pababag Island, particularly Barangay Lagasan and Barangay Pababag, is now regenerating.

"For the people of Bongao, the sea is very important. Our marine resources are one of the major sources of our livelihood. If we do not protect the sea, it is tantamount to giving up our main source of livelihood," Que says.

"A destroyed sea means disaster for the thousands of fishermen and their families," the mayor says.

The establishment of protected marine sanctuaries benefits the other island municipalities, such as Panglima Sugala and Simunul, which also rely mainly on fisheries and marine resources for livelihood and employment.

Under Executive Order No. 8, Bongao officials formed the Municipal Coastal Law Enforcement Team (MCLET) and EO 14, the municipal fisheries office, which works for the approval of a municipal fisheries management plan to address the issue illegal fishing practices.

The MCLET is an interagency group that includes the Municipal Fisheries Office (MFO), Philippine National Police (PNP), Bantay Sanctuary, the military’s Task Force 62, and the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR). Since 2006, when the body was activated, cases of illegal fishing, particularly the use of dynamite, have dropped by 98 percent.

Earlier, fish cages were constructed in Pababag. This was followed by an LGU-initiated expansion of the marine protected areas to include other villages. When local officials and members of the MCLET went on a study tour to Bohol, where marine resources are highly valued and protected, they were inspired to replicate what they observed.

Zulficar Ladjahali, chair of Barangay Lagsan and head of the Bantay Sanctuary, says: "I realized that protecting our marine resources will not only provide us with abundant fish and other marine products but these will also attract tourists (that in turn will translate into livelihood opportunities). These things can also be done in our village."

Bongao's CDP-Ela also identified agriculture as a major source of livelihood. But because roads have become nearly impassable over the years, agricultural production declined.

With support from the Department of Agriculture (DA) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), through the former's Infrastructure Rural Enhancement Sector Project, Bongao was able to construct and rehabilitate farm-to-market roads.

People's participation

Manuel Pampora, the municipal planning and development officer, says all the good things now happening in Bongao became possible only through strong partnerships forged by the LGU with other sectors.

"We have recognized and valued the importance of the participation of the community in governance. We are here for the people so it would be better if we include them from the early stage of implementing certain programs," says Pampora.

Says Abdulmonap: "It (people's participation) was helpful when we were crafting the executive and legislative agenda, especially when we opened our doors to other government line agencies, civil society groups and other stakeholders.

"The process was to go down to the level of the grassroots. We asked them what they need. The time when political leaders and donor agencies dictate on what the people must have is over … now they decide what they want and need."

That approach to governance was new and turned out really helpful, she says. "Before, we even questioned the usefulness of trainings, seminars and study tours; we just couldn’t see their significance in the middle of our desperation to generate money for our projects and programs … Later, we realized during the preparation of the executive and legislative agenda that all that we learned along the way can become useful tools in good governance," Que says that many things have changed for the better when the LGU instituted governance reforms, but that many things still need to be done. Part of this equation was peace making.

To start with, the people declared the municipal hall a zone of peace.

"I know that we are on the right track. Still a lot of things must be done. Bongao can become better in the coming years if the gains of the present will be continued by the future," he says.