Background

Leadership is one of the great intangibles. We recognize it when we have it and when it is lacking, the vacuum can seem impossible to fill. Successful local governments need leaders in every sector to address pressing issues of inefficient service delivery, poverty and poor governance. Urban leadership is a particular challenge for local government partners of the Canadian Urban Institute in its capacity development work in the Philippines.

The Urban Leadership Awards pays tribute to the CUI local government partners that have made significant impact on the quality of local governance and leadership through the demonstration pilot projects that aim at enhancing the delivery of economic, social and environmental services and that harness local, national or regional innovations to improve urban governance processes. The Urban Leadership Awards fosters up-streaming and contribute to policy development on good governance at the regional and national levels.

It honors projects that demonstrated a level of impact, innovation and sustainability as well as the potential for replication in other local governments. These projects promote leadership for urban governance, and in this process, collect a body of knowledge that would impact on local service delivery, poverty reduction and/or environmental sustainability.

Developed by the Canadian Urban Institute, the Urban Leadership Awards is supported by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) as part of Canada-Philippines Partnership Program for Good Urban Governance (CPPPGUG)’s commitment towards further increasing the capacities of partner local governments to meet the challenges of the 21st century through innovating new and catalytic ideas that enable good urban governance.

Objectives

1. Recognize LGU partners and their demonstration projects that have made exceptional efforts and tangible results in improving urban governance.

2. Disseminate outstanding work done by LGU partners so that other local government partnerships can benefit from their experience as well as further augment the strength of regional cooperation between local governments and national government agencies.

Criteria

The main criteria for the evaluation of the Urban Leadership Awards are:

1. Demonstrated Impact. Any demonstration project implemented in partnership with other key stakeholder groups that has significantly improved the socio-economic conditions of the clients as tangible results of the intervention.
2. Innovation. Any demonstrated project implemented in partnership with other key stakeholders that has established a high level of innovative approach or novelty for enhancing service delivery and contributing to poverty reduction.

Guisi community-based heritage tourism project wins ULA The Guisi Community-Based Heritage Tourism Project was adjudged as the winner in the Philippine edition of the Urban Leadership Awards. It won PhP 100,000 and a study tour for the members of the project implementing team. The project is a community-managed undertaking that seeks to develop the local agri-tourism industry, protect the environment and preserve local heritage in the hamlet of Guisi in Nueva Valencia town in Guimaras province. Lisa Cavicchia, International Project Manager of the Canadian Urban Institute (CUI), handed over a replica of the check to community leaders during the awards ceremony held on the evening of December 14. Assisting her was Francis Gentoral, CUI regional manager for Southeast Asia. The winning project was cited with the Urban Sustainability Award for “contributions that enhance our understanding of how vibrant communities can be built through improved social well-being, strong and diverse economies, and the maintenance and improvement of our ecosystem.” Three other projects were cited during the awards ceremony held at the Iloilo Grand Hotel. These include the Boracay Island Sustainable Health Services Delivery Project (Urban Livability Award), the Community-Based Tourism Awareness and Appreciation Campaign (Urban Partnership Award) and Guimaras Trade and Information Center (Urban Innovation Award). The Boracay Island Sustainable Health Services Delivery seeks to increase inter-barangay support in health service delivery to bring down morbidity and mortality rates in Boracay Island, a tourism destination in central Philippines. The Community-Based Tourism Awareness and Appreciation Campaign is a creative communication and education drive that seeks to raise the awareness of communities in the province of Guimaras on the benefits of tourism. The Guimaras Trade and Information Center (GTIC) aims to provide efficient information, training and promotion support services for entrepreneurs to support poverty reduction efforts of the province of Guimaras. Ten nominees vied for the awards, all of which were implemented by CUI local partners which include the province of Guimaras, the municipality of Malay, Aklan and the Metropolitan Iloilo Development Council consists of Iloilo City, Leganes, Oton, Pavia and San Miguel. The awards ceremony marked the culmination of the Canada-Philippines Partnership Program for Good Urban Governance (CPPPGUG), which CUI implements from 2001 to 2006 and funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).

3. Transferability and Sustainability . Any innovative demonstration project implemented in partnership with other key stakeholders that show promise of inspiring successful replication by other local governments.

Awards

The CUI Leadership Awards include a cash grant of PhP 100,000 for the Team or LGU to be used to advance the project and/or facilitate the transfer of knowledge and project experiences to one or more local governments in the Philippines.

Treñas, Nava cited for urban leadership

Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas and Guimaras Gov. Rahman Nava were given the Urban Leadership Achievement Awards for their “exemplary display of leadership that has profound and lasting impact on the quality of life in the community.”

The plaques recognizing Treñas and Nava were handed to them by Lisa Cavicchia, International Project Manager of the Canadian Urban Institute (CUI), during the awards ceremony of the Urban Leadership Award on December 14 at the Iloilo Grand Hotel.

Treñas, who is also chair of the Metropolitan Iloilo Development Council (MIDC), was honored for his unwavering support on the value of inter-local government cooperation by leading the MIDC to become one of the Philippines’ new models of urban governance.

Nava, for his part, was cited for promoting sustainability in Guimaras. Proof of his support is the inclusion of the published case study on Guimaras’ Integrated Solid Waste Management Project in the book “Innovative Communities: People-Centred Approaches to Environmental Management in the Asia Pacific Region.”

The book, published by the United Nations University, illustrates the concept of community innovation and its role and impact in promoting sustainability. It describes how Guimaras are adopting innovative methods to address complex and unpredictable environmental problems and promote sustainable development.
Nava and Treñas created the Guimaras-Iloilo City Alliance (GICA), a new partnership in addressing inter-local issues of tourism, investments and infrastructure development.

On the other hand, Cavicchia also awarded a plaque of recognition to Francis Gentoral, CUI program manager for Southeast Asia, for his dedication and contributions to the public realm.

The plaques for Treñas, Nava and Gentoral were artworks by Bill Reid, who has been described as “one of Canada’s greatest artists of the 20th century.” Reid is a goldsmith-turned-sculptor, carver and writer. Cavicchia brought them from Toronto where CUI is based.

“Bill Reid was the pivotal force in introducing to the world the great art traditions of the indigenous people of the Northwest Coast of North America,” says the website of the Bill Reid Foundation (www.billreidfoundation.org).

“His legacies include infusing that tradition with modern ideas and forms of expression, influencing emerging artists, and building lasting bridges between First Nations and other peoples,” it added. Born in 1920, Reid died in 1998.

Villagers bid to win over poverty

(From Urban Partner, December 2003 issue)

Earning around 70 pesos a day from the dwindling yield of the sea and from the tedious process of making charcoal isn’t really enough for every family of Barangay Dolores, a coastal village in the town of Nueva Valencia and is found in the southwestern-most tip of Guimaras Island in central Philippines. Perhaps, the community just simply wants to be true to its name, which in English means “pains.”

Guisi beach

At the average, families in Dolores earn about 300 pesos a week from fishing and 200 pesos a week from charcoal making – the two industries that have been sustaining the lives of its at least
1,800 population.

“Life is becoming hard here these days. Illegal fishing has destroyed our marine resources and fishers could hardly make a hefty catch,” laments village chief Rogelio Galapin, 62.

He blames illegal fishing and the intrusion of big commercial fishing boats into the municipal waters as the reason for the decline of the household income in the village.

“Two decades ago, the daily catch was abundant. Fishers then can bring home at least 300 pesos a day,” Galapin, speaking in his native tongue Hiligaynon, recounts.

OPTIMISM

But despite the growing pains in the area, optimism is now reigning among the people following the entry of the Guimaras Heritage Tourism Project, which aims to transform the place into a tourist destination managed by the community.

The project calls for the establishment of a community-based heritage tourism program, one of the demonstration projects under the Guimaras Economic Initiatives.

The GEI is a capacity development assistance for the island province implemented under the Canada-Philippine Partnership Program for Good Urban Governance (CPPPGUG). CPPPGUG is an initiative under the International Partnership Program for Good Urban Governance between Canada and the Philippines that seeks to assist selected local governments in the Western Visayas region to achieve more efficient and equitable delivery of economic, environmental and social services through the promotion of inter-local government cooperation.

Funded by the government of Canada through the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the program supports the Philippines’ continued thrust towards decentralization of powers to local authorities and empowerment of communities in local decision-making, as set forth in the 1991 Local Government Code.

Paddling a native outrigger is one of the features of a tour in Guisi

“Barangay Dolores has a lot of potentials as far as tourism is concerned,” says Francis Gentoral, Philippine program manager of the Canadian Urban Institute, a Canadian non-government organization that implements the CPPPGUG.

“If given the capacity to manage their own resources, the community can improve their lot through tourism. Managing their resources will also require them to protect it, thus making the industry sustainable,” adds Gentoral.

CUI, which serves as a think-tank, is committed to improving policy making, governance and management in urban regions by encouraging a better understanding of contemporary urban issues among communities, business, government and other key institutions.

TOURISM POTENTIALS

Dolores boasts of Sitio Guisi, a coastal hamlet of about 80 families living along the white sand beach and guarded by a Spanish lighthouse known in naval manuals as Faro de Punta Luzaran.

It also has forested hills, a cave and a waterfall. The indigenous culture remains intact, and the people are ideally hospitable. The coast also offers a magnificent view of the sunset over Panay Gulf.

“The beach is perfect for swimming and canoeing, the hills are ideal for mountain-trekking and the caves are a good site for spelunking. It also has refreshing springs while the lighthouse gives everyone a lesson in history,” says Governor Rahman Nava of Guimaras.

The lighthouse was one of the 70 lighthouses built across the Philippines in 1857 as part of the Masterplan for the Lighting of the Maritime Coasts of the Philippine Archipelago.

The master plan was born for the purpose of lighting the seas and channels of the Philippines to guide ships in and through the most important sea channels to the ports of Manila, Iloilo and Cebu. Guisi was selected to be the host of the lighthouse because it is visible from both Panay and Negros, and from the open sea in the eastern side of the country, it being at the southwestern end of Guimaras.

The area also served as a stopover point for sugar and log loaded ships plying the Iloilo-Cauayan (Negros Occidental) route during the 18th and 19th centuries.

Old Spanish lighthouse in Guisi

The Spanish lighthouse, which is no longer functioning but is still extant, had a beam that can reach 14 miles, or as far as the town of Guimbal in Iloilo. Its rotating prism, which reflects and beams the kerosene-fueled light, was powered by gravitational force. Sometime in the 1990s, the Philippine Coast Guard constructed a new one, this time, it is powered by solar energy.

BUILDING CAPACITIES

To build the capacity of villagers in managing a community-based tourism project, a workshop was held in December 2003 to equip them with basic knowledge in inn-keeping, organization, management of tourism facilities and events, guest assistance and handling as well as marketing. Before the workshop, a group of provincial government personnel had a study tour in Samal Island in Davao del Norte where a community-based tourism program had been making several gains. Their learnings were echoed during the activity.

The provincial government of Guimaras, the municipal government of Nueva Valencia and CUI facilitated the workshop, which enjoyed the assistance of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda).

The provincial government of Guimaras allocated 350,000 pesos for the construction of a one-room heritage cottage to accommodate tourists in the area. It is equipped with a bathroom, a kitchen and lighting facilities. It was subsequently turned over the Barangay Tourism Council (BTC) for management.

The BTC offers a tour package for a group of five at the rate of 1,175 pesos per person, which includes accommodation at the heritage cottage and meals for two days, and services like boating and carroza ride, as well as a cultural presentation. Guides are also available for those who want to go mountain trekking and spelunking.

BLESSING

“This project is a blessing to the people here because it can give them additional income as service providers in the project,” says Renato Garnita, 66, president of the BTC.

Garnita, whose father used to work at the lighthouse, describes as “timely” the assistance given them under the Guimaras Heritage Tourism Project because it came at the time when most residents are bearing the pains of poverty.

He likened the project to the lighthouse that guides ships to their destinations. “Our village has a lot of potentials and all the people here need is guidance so we can overcome the challenges, and we are glad that there is this project that will give us direction,” he quips.

Garnita concedes that the people still has a lot of things to learn before they can develop the proper skills and acquire sufficient knowledge to manage the resources of the village.

He adds, “If many of us can withstand poverty here, there is no reason why we can’t endure the test of learning the ropes of the trade. If we will not face that test, we can never receive the promise that community-based tourism brings us.”