Gov. Edgar Chatto has declared 2012 a shining banner year for partnership that redounds to more benefits for Bohol and the Boholanos. Capitol at his helm capped year 2011 with notable and unprecedented national awards and recognitions that prove the commitment and competence of his tandem with Vice Gov. Concepcion Lim. Lim presides the Sangguniang Panlalawigan, the province’s highest policy-making body, which last year’s significant legislative act trashing the Panglao reclamation plan has been hailed a triumph of Bohol sustainable development agenda. Chatto declared in his maiden broadcast for 2012 of Kita ug Ang Gobernador on Friday that the unfolding year will see major provincial government tie-ups with local, national and international development program partners. All the way from the Netherlands, potential partners on tourism, water supply, sanitation, mangrove and coastal resource management in fact met with the governor as soon as he reported to office after the New Year break.

The group was led by Dr. Eric Van Dijk, senior adviser of the EUCC, who also linked with the PROCESS Foundation which is an institutional development partner of the province. On Wednesday, January 11, local and national partners in bigger number and with wider services will join the province’s year-launching HEAT Caravan in Antequera. An unprecedented Chatto innovation, the HEAT caravan was started with just over 30 participating government and private groups until it has gained the support of some 80 public and private agencies and private organizations now. National agencies have gained interest in the project-program-service caravan after their field offices involved in it included in their accomplishment reports the services they had delivered in the past caravans. Chatto was humbled by the intent of other provinces to copy this best Bohol government practice. The HEAT means “Health and sanitation, Education and technology, Agriculture and food security, Tourism and livelihood.”

The governor on Thursday led the provincial officials in meeting with Philhealth officials, mayors, vice mayors and social welfare officers on pressing concerns amid national health care insurance policy changes. It served as a year-opening salvo for the province’s health sector program. The HEAT is a substantial layer in the core pursuit of the more-encompassing sustainable development agenda dubbed the LIFE HELPS, which means “Livelihood, Infrastructure, Food, Education, Health, Environmental protection, Leadership development, Peace and order, Sports and youth development.” On infrastructure, 2012 is the year awaited for the new Bohol airport project on Panglao island to finally start taking off to reality under the public-private partnership scheme of the Aquino administration. As the ambitious project is earmarked for PPP execution, the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) assured the governor to start the improvement of the Tagbilaran City airport by first installing new air-conditioning units at the terminal building this month. The improvement includes the expansion of the second floor of the building for bigger pre-departure space, thereby decongesting the existing area amid the growing air passenger traffic. However, this is just palliative while awaiting the new Bohol airport construction, completion and operation replacing the old and acute Tagbilaran airport, which is criticized by international aviation experts as the world’s most dangerous airport.

TESTAMENTS TO COMPETENCE

The learned and faithful pursuit of the agenda has led to honors and distinctions for Bohol governance from various government institutions and private sector. The awards earned are testaments to the abilities to carry out public tasks and faithful delivery of services. But Chatto said these should not stop the efforts since they are just the beginnings of tireless awakening prayed to lift up the conditions of the people. Public mandate accomplishments are meaningful when people are motivated to support and participate in governance, said the governor whose just one-and-a-half year at capitol was able to make Bohol the best-governed province in the country based on the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) evaluation. Being intense for stronger partnerships in this year of the dragon, Chatto strategized in another meeting several approaches to livelihood based on vocational and technical skills as well as potential promising overseas jobs, including the prospects in Canada. The strategic meeting called by Chatto at the Governor’s Mansion on Friday was attended by Bohol Employment and Placement Office (BEPO), Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) and Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE). The governor discussed with potential foreign partners the overseas employment of more Boholanos when he keynoted the convention of the Confederation of Boholanos in the USA and Canada last year.

GOLDEN ERA

It is precisely for the numerous highest accolades, including the rare ones, that even the Boholanos abroad have seemed to start seeing the “golden era” in Bohol governance under Chatto. The DILG – Local Government Performance Measurement System declaration of Bohol as the country’s best-governed province alone already proved 2011 as a fruitful capitol year. It was the first time that the Boholano province recorded such a feat. Bohol earned also last year such other prestigious major awards as the Seal of Housekeeping and Gawad Pamana ng Lahi for Good Governance, both from the DILG, too, National Kabalikat Award from TESDA, Nutrition Program Award from the National Nutrition Council, National Bayanihan Award from the Armed Forces of the Philippines, and Galing Pook Award from the Galing Pook Foundation which will be formally conferred most likely at Malacañang this month.

The Bayanihan Award recognizes as the country’s best the long-term school building construction partnership between the Bohol provincial government, AFP-NADESCOM, Department of Education (DepEd) and private sector. The country’s first-ever province-wide application of the Dynamic Learning Program (DLP), another partnership on education, is now evaluated by DepEd. The governor on Wednesday spoke to national and international mathematicians and academicians who held their international workshop at the physics center of the Central Visayan Institute Foundation in Jagna run by the gem couple of Bohol education, Drs. Christopher and Marivic Bernido, who are the DLP inventors. As a governor, Chatto is himself a laurel in Bohol governance as he received last year the national Dangal ng Bayan Award from the Civil Service Commission (CSC). He is the only Philippine elective public official conferred the two highest CSC honors after he first earned the agency’s Centennial Lingkod bayan Award while he then served as vice governor in 2000. The governor vowed to double, even triple, his efforts in 2012 as he pursues the principle of the deeds to do the talking, not mouthful of words for empty act. Chatto is confident that the Boholanos can overcome the challenges in 2012 as “we keep our strong faith in Him who unfailingly provides and teaches us the rule of truth.” (Ven rebo Arigo)