There’s no stopping Bohol’s excellent performance in the delivery of basic services to its constituents. Fresh from bagging the 2010 and 2011 awards for best governed province, this time, Bohol is honored again to have coveted a national award from the Department of Social Welfare and Development. The two- year feat as best governed province was topped with another award known as the Gawad Pamana ng Lahi courtesy of the Department of Interior and Local Government. The latest award , which Gov. Edgar Chatto announced during Friday’s edition of “Kita ug ang Gobernador”, showed that the province started the year right with new honors this time from the DSWD. Gov. Chatto personally received the good news from DSWD Sec. Dinky Soliman. In the letter which the governor read during the weekly radio program, Soliman bared that Bohol was unanimously chosen by the evaluation committee as the provincial Level awardee of the Gawad Paglilingkod sa Sambayanan (GAPAS).

The GAPAS award was institutionalized to recognize implementation by Local Government Units of social services. It distinguishes best delivery of social welfare services, best innovations, and best programs. Bohol was cited for its HEAT Bohol program and LIFE HELPS strategies, the agenda created and implemented under the Chatto-Lim administration. The HEAT Bohol caravan, the Telephone and Radio Systems Integrated Emergency Response (TaRSIER 117), Medica Outreach Program, the Bohol Crisis and Intervention Center for Women and Children, and the Stimulation Activity Center for Disadvantaged Children were among noteworthy achievements aimed at social welfare delivery. Also acknowledged as outstanding programs identified as having contributed to best social welfare delivery were programs for Differently-Abled Persons, Senior Citizens’ Program, Children’s Congress, Youth Skills Training, and the Purok Power Movement, among others. In the HEAT Bohol caravan, only one of Bohol’s many innovations on service delivery, the Regional DSWD conducts consultations on adoption, legal guardianship and foster care, advocacy on women and children’s rights, information dissemination on sustainable livelihood programs, as well as distributes pay-outs for its 4PS and Social Pension programs.

The OPSWD not only distributes goodie bags, it also carries out its supplemental feeding program, and provides assistive devices such as canes, walkers, crutches, and wheelchairs. In addition, the Bohol Crisis Intervention Center also holds its advocacy campaign for women and children, and counseling during the caravan. Furthermore, the Bohol Federation of Disabled Persons, Incorporated volunteers in the provision of therapeutic massage/hilot/reflexology, manicure, pedicure, and foot spa, the mark of truly empowered citizens, largely due to the support by the Provincial Government. Chatto, whose unwavering battle cry has been public service delivery, said Bohol continues with its enthusiasm to forge and further partnerships with both government agencies and non-government organizations in order to provide the best service to its people. Programs implemented under Chatto’s principle of shared leadership have been consistently anchored on multi-sectoral and multi-agency convergence which has gained recognition not just for the entire province but also acknowledgement of the efforts of respective partner agencies.

These significant feats include the citation as Best Governed Province in 2010 and 2011 and the Gawad Pamana ng Lahi awards from the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) which also named DILG Bohol Field Unit as best performing unit. The Department of Education (DepEd) also earned national recognition as Best Implementation of the classroom building program, under the Bayanihan Long Term Partnership for Education, which also won for Bohol best stakeholder of the IPSP Bayanihan of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, and for the 53rd Engineering Battalion the best performing battalion. DSWD Reg. Dir. Ma. Evelyn Macapobre led the awarding of the GAPAS at the regional level held last Friday in Cebu. Sec. Soliman will bestow the National GAPAS Award to Bohol on Feb. 1, 2013 in Manila. (Leah/EDCOM)