2 Boholanos win TOBOY regional awards for ‘06

TWO Boholano entries to the Department of Interior and Local Government's Ten Outstanding Barangay Officials of the Year (TOBOY) came back home reaping honors not just for Bohol and their respective Local Government Units but also for themselves by proving they can be second to none in the region's innovative government administration even in their simple ways. Poblacion Weste of Catigbian barangay treasurer Ligaya M. Tadle and Poblacion Cortes' Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) chairman Franco Tatad have again proven that when it comes to innovation to help government stretch its limits, Boholanos can be dependable.

Both winners have shown that the Boholano ingenuity in motivating innovative governance would help make governance roll. This was also one of the goals of TOBOY conceptualizer, Boholano Representative Edgar Chatto, early in his political career. Piloted in Bohol , the TOBOY has been adopted as a joint DILG and Local Administration Development Program Alumni Association of the Philippines (LADPAAP) while they saw that it rejuvenated people's belief in government that works for the people. For Catigbian, Tadle simply raised her barangay's revenues from P12T in 2004 to P23T in 2005, a jump that raised the red flag in innovative and participative governance. She ventured into the realms of becoming a one-man tax-mapping team going house to house in getting collecting community taxes.

For Cortes, Franco Tatad, innovation in governance means rallying the youth for more active and productive roles in nation building. Franco recently launched the Maximum Youth Movers of Poblacion (MYMP) in Cortes ; a dance troupe that performs in social invitations and gatherings. Add to that the fact that the dance instructor SK chair also organized the SK dance troupe and posted the Poblacion SK information center that broadcasts news to the youth. Put his anti-drug abuse, anti-alcoholism and anti smoking campaigns along with active youth members and you hit the mark for success, says SK Legislative Staff Assistant John Torralba when asked about Franco's dramatic role to earn him the plum. Both winners pocketed a total of P10T: P7T as regional winners and an automatic P3T as regional finalists. The awarding ceremonies at the Ecotech Center in Lahug had no less that DILG Undersecretary Joselito Ruiz, DILG Regional Director Rene Burdeos, TOBOY Chairman and resident Representative Edgar Chatto, Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Incorporated (RAFI) chief operating officer Dominic Chua and Metro Gaisano president Jack Gaisano.

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