THERE is another city of San Fernando which is making waves in governance as we speak, following the footsteps of our own City of San Fernando in mastering the art and science of making governance a shared responsibility.
I had the opportunity to visit and witness how they do thing in the City of San Fernando, La Union when our Pampanga group went there for a benchmarking activity. While I am quite used to the low-key, down-to-earth mien of our own Mayor EdSa, I was still pleasantly surprised and overwhelmed by his humble counterpart up north in the person of Mayor Dong Gualberto, who is now in his first term of office. Mayor Gualberto donned their city government uniform when we visited there and warmly welcomed us to his city, with a sumptuous breakfast and enjoyable lunch too.
We interacted with the Strategic Management group of CSFLU and gamely learned from their best practices. CSFLU has also successfully institutionalized the use of the Balance Scorecard – based Performance Governance System and was inducted in the international Palladium hall of fame for the same.
What impressed me most about the CSFLU story is the synergy between the city government and the barangays. One of the success stories in their governance journey is their program on community-based Income Generating Projects or IGPs which has been implemented in all 59 barangays of their city. 22 out of these barangays have been elevated to the model barangay category.
These IGPs are linked directly to tourism, trade, and industry, similar to our city’s one barangay, one product program. The major difference is these IGPs have been transformed from dole out projects with a seed capital of P50,000, to veritable income generating ones, with all the 59 barangays going through trainings and successfully hurdling certifications in ISO 14001 series on Environmental Management and OHSAS 18001 series on occupational health and safety. These products are proudly displayed and available at the provincial government-run pasalubong center.
What I liked best about CSFLU’s presentations was how the private sector and barangay recipients validated the city’s programs and attested to how they have embraced their city’s vision to be the People’s City by 2025. As an example, a very eloquent barangay secretary, from Barangay Pias, shared their own community’s experience in implementing their pickled papaya project, while the officers of the Association of Tourism Industry Networks of La Union narrated how they organized and funded their own projects which contribute to their city’s vision as well.
It was very inspiring to see the IGPs in action when we visited and interviewed barangay officials and program beneficiaries in Barangay Ilocanos Sur where they bottle fish and seafood products and Barangay Abut where the community runs a shared service facility for bamboo products processing.
One thing that strikes me is that, whether in CSFP or CSFLU, Fernandinos always strive for excellence.