DM 201: The Municipality of Carmona, Cavite (1 of 2 parts)
The DM 201 class together Sony Q’s Project Development class (great people!) had a field trip to the Municipality of Carmona, Cavite (about 36 km south of Manila) courtesy of DM classmates Rona and Reigh who worked in the Carmona Municipal Hall.
According to Sony Q …
“the intent of the exposure trip is to enable us to appreciate and understand from the point of view of actual development actors what they are up against with. For the DM class, this will enable the class to tie up the theoretical discussions with on the ground activities – on poverty and LGU’s response to the challenge, MDG localization and how civil society organizations work toward societal concerns and maybe an appreciation of what residents think about their current conditions..”
However, during the time of the field trip, I completely forgot about this purpose. I feel as if I wasn’t able to ask the right questions and retain the right information. Now that I am “back on track” – I hope I can at least satisfy some parts of our objectives.
The first thing that struck me when I reached the Carmona Municipal Hall was its location and its cleanliness. Unlike our municipal hall in Biñan (located practically in the heart of the public market), Carmona’s was tiled, free of street vendors, had reasonable parking spaces, and well… smelled nice. It made me wonder how Biñan’s Mayor Boy Perez won this “Best Mayor” award with such a dirty and seemingly unhygienic munisipyo.
Ms. Mildred M. Purificacion of the Municipal Planning and Development council was kind enough to accommodate us on a Saturday to talk about the programs and plans of Carmona.
CARMONA
Total Land Area: 3,092 has.
Barangays: 14
Population as of 2004: 53,650
Household Population: 11,719
Population Growth Rate: 7.02%
Population Density: 17.35 persons/ha.
It is interesting to mention that Carmona’s incumbent mayor, Dra. Dahlia A. Loyola was elected right after her husband, finished his term. This situation was brought up during the discussion, and even though it seemed so “power-grabbing” I can’t help but agree that keeping the responsibility of managing a municipality to one family helped retain the sustainability and continuity (and perhaps ensured a success that can be enjoyed longer) of Carmona’s development programs.
I’d rather not tackle the programs one by one, but instead focus on those that I found most interesting and significant: the fields of health, education and social welfare. In targeting these areas, the Municipality cuts across the mechanisms for the achievement of the MDGs.
HEALTH CARE
There are a total of 13 health centers in Carmona. From time to time, the municipality holds medical and dental missions for its constituents. Directly related to maternal and child care are the Nutrition awareness programs and the free bilateral tubal ligation services.
The Pagamutang Bayan ng Carmona (PBC) has always been known to render quality medical services and still striving its best to cater the primary health needs of Carmona and nearby towns as well. The PBC is currently under renovation and expansion.
EDUCATION
Personally, Education should be at the top of everyone’s priority list. Based on what was reported, I think Carmona had a pretty good listing of educational services and programs – not relying entirely on scholarship dole outs.
In addition to their educational assistance and scholarship programs, provision of school furniture, audiovisual equipment and computer units, the municipality also maintains a library. Also under education are some sports and culture and arts preservation activities.
(I would love to explore the Internet Connectivity status of the Carmona Public High School, which is in line with one of the things am busy with in the office, visit http://www.gilas.org/ for details)
SOCIAL WELFARE
The Municipal Social Welfare and Development (MSWD) extends social welfare assistance, social works and development services to the community.
The Self-Employment Assistance Program or Tulong Puhunan program offers small loans to small entrepreneurs.
Other programs which fall under this category (which I think may also fall in OTHER categories – I guess this is one problem in development work, with such big and overlapping scopes and with its endless cycle, one cannot possibly classify things under one category alone) are the Murang Bigas para sa Masa project, Wheelchair Distribution, Non-Formal Education for Disabled Persons, Hearing Aid distribution and Philhealth Card para sa Masa. They also have strong support for the senior citizens, holding a very well-attended Linggo ng Katandaan every year, along with periodic Medical Missions para kay Lolo at Lola.
The Municipality also offers livelihood programs for individual entrepreneurs such as cosmetology, meat processing, chocolate molding, etc… they also have classes in sewing machine operation which make the attendees “employable” to the industries sprouting in the nearby areas. Other Social Welfare programs include “Balik Probinsya” – where illegal settlers are encouraged to go back to where they came from, burial assistance, Emergency Shelter Assistance, among others.
These are but a few of Carmona’s programs – Carmona also pays much importance to the economic development of its agricultural, commercial and industrial sectors. We can also note the existence of the Municipal Cooperative Development Council which provides financial services and business opportunities to 33 Cooperatives.
The municipality has also taken up under its wing the provision of affordable housing projects, access to potable water and the assurance of sanitary toilet facilities. They also show concern for the Environment through responsible garbage disposal and waste segration, with the existence of the Carmona Ecology Center – a processing facility where biodegradeables are processed into compost and recyclables gathered and stored in a redemption area. Each barangay or barangay cluster is equipped with Material Recovery Facilities (MRF’s) in compliance with RA 9003 or the Ecological Waste Management Act of 2000. (attention Ms Adel and Kakay!)
ADMIRABLE
I am sure that all municipalities strive to put their best foot forward when presenting their development programs in front of a group of people. I pray that the story of Carmona, as shared with us , were sincerely implemented and are continuously being implemented and improved.
I like what I saw though, keep it up!
According to Sony Q …
“the intent of the exposure trip is to enable us to appreciate and understand from the point of view of actual development actors what they are up against with. For the DM class, this will enable the class to tie up the theoretical discussions with on the ground activities – on poverty and LGU’s response to the challenge, MDG localization and how civil society organizations work toward societal concerns and maybe an appreciation of what residents think about their current conditions..”
However, during the time of the field trip, I completely forgot about this purpose. I feel as if I wasn’t able to ask the right questions and retain the right information. Now that I am “back on track” – I hope I can at least satisfy some parts of our objectives.
The first thing that struck me when I reached the Carmona Municipal Hall was its location and its cleanliness. Unlike our municipal hall in Biñan (located practically in the heart of the public market), Carmona’s was tiled, free of street vendors, had reasonable parking spaces, and well… smelled nice. It made me wonder how Biñan’s Mayor Boy Perez won this “Best Mayor” award with such a dirty and seemingly unhygienic munisipyo.
Ms. Mildred M. Purificacion of the Municipal Planning and Development council was kind enough to accommodate us on a Saturday to talk about the programs and plans of Carmona.
CARMONA
Total Land Area: 3,092 has.
Barangays: 14
Population as of 2004: 53,650
Household Population: 11,719
Population Growth Rate: 7.02%
Population Density: 17.35 persons/ha.
It is interesting to mention that Carmona’s incumbent mayor, Dra. Dahlia A. Loyola was elected right after her husband, finished his term. This situation was brought up during the discussion, and even though it seemed so “power-grabbing” I can’t help but agree that keeping the responsibility of managing a municipality to one family helped retain the sustainability and continuity (and perhaps ensured a success that can be enjoyed longer) of Carmona’s development programs.
I’d rather not tackle the programs one by one, but instead focus on those that I found most interesting and significant: the fields of health, education and social welfare. In targeting these areas, the Municipality cuts across the mechanisms for the achievement of the MDGs.
HEALTH CARE
There are a total of 13 health centers in Carmona. From time to time, the municipality holds medical and dental missions for its constituents. Directly related to maternal and child care are the Nutrition awareness programs and the free bilateral tubal ligation services.
The Pagamutang Bayan ng Carmona (PBC) has always been known to render quality medical services and still striving its best to cater the primary health needs of Carmona and nearby towns as well. The PBC is currently under renovation and expansion.
EDUCATION
Personally, Education should be at the top of everyone’s priority list. Based on what was reported, I think Carmona had a pretty good listing of educational services and programs – not relying entirely on scholarship dole outs.
In addition to their educational assistance and scholarship programs, provision of school furniture, audiovisual equipment and computer units, the municipality also maintains a library. Also under education are some sports and culture and arts preservation activities.
(I would love to explore the Internet Connectivity status of the Carmona Public High School, which is in line with one of the things am busy with in the office, visit http://www.gilas.org/ for details)
SOCIAL WELFARE
The Municipal Social Welfare and Development (MSWD) extends social welfare assistance, social works and development services to the community.
The Self-Employment Assistance Program or Tulong Puhunan program offers small loans to small entrepreneurs.
Other programs which fall under this category (which I think may also fall in OTHER categories – I guess this is one problem in development work, with such big and overlapping scopes and with its endless cycle, one cannot possibly classify things under one category alone) are the Murang Bigas para sa Masa project, Wheelchair Distribution, Non-Formal Education for Disabled Persons, Hearing Aid distribution and Philhealth Card para sa Masa. They also have strong support for the senior citizens, holding a very well-attended Linggo ng Katandaan every year, along with periodic Medical Missions para kay Lolo at Lola.
The Municipality also offers livelihood programs for individual entrepreneurs such as cosmetology, meat processing, chocolate molding, etc… they also have classes in sewing machine operation which make the attendees “employable” to the industries sprouting in the nearby areas. Other Social Welfare programs include “Balik Probinsya” – where illegal settlers are encouraged to go back to where they came from, burial assistance, Emergency Shelter Assistance, among others.
These are but a few of Carmona’s programs – Carmona also pays much importance to the economic development of its agricultural, commercial and industrial sectors. We can also note the existence of the Municipal Cooperative Development Council which provides financial services and business opportunities to 33 Cooperatives.
The municipality has also taken up under its wing the provision of affordable housing projects, access to potable water and the assurance of sanitary toilet facilities. They also show concern for the Environment through responsible garbage disposal and waste segration, with the existence of the Carmona Ecology Center – a processing facility where biodegradeables are processed into compost and recyclables gathered and stored in a redemption area. Each barangay or barangay cluster is equipped with Material Recovery Facilities (MRF’s) in compliance with RA 9003 or the Ecological Waste Management Act of 2000. (attention Ms Adel and Kakay!)
ADMIRABLE
I am sure that all municipalities strive to put their best foot forward when presenting their development programs in front of a group of people. I pray that the story of Carmona, as shared with us , were sincerely implemented and are continuously being implemented and improved.
I like what I saw though, keep it up!
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