Oriental Mindoro is an image of a tropical paradise ranging from its famous white beaches, crystal clear water to green forests covering regal mountains. With its natural beauty, the province has much to offer in terms of tourism and other economic opportunities covering 14 municipalities and one city.
Despite of these great features, a truth lies beneath the province’s socio-economic status. The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Listahanan 2009 province-wide assessment revealed 73,878 poor households in Oriental Mindoro putting it 2nd in rank in MiMaRoPa provinces with the highest number of identified poor. This statistics shows that regardless of government efforts to address economic difficulties, the war on poverty remains a big challenge.
The SICAD Project
To deal with this challenge, the Provincial Government of Oriental Mindoro (PGOM) through its current Governor, Alfonso V. Umali, a flagship reform program known as Strategic Intervention and Community-focused Action towards Development (SICAD) was implemented. It is a response mechanism and convergence strategy to synchronize the implementation of local Social Protection Programs (SPPs) of attached government agencies and private sectors in reducing poverty.
SICAD approach targets to improve access on government resources and services; as well as sustainable management of resources and institutional collaboration. This initiative simply involves convergent delivery of interventions to communities alongside employing the triumvirate processes of change to alleviate poverty, eradicate social inequality and ensure sustainable resource use and management.
Moreover, SICAD aims to: (1) reduce poor number of poor families in Oriental Mindoro; (2) intensify the targeting mechanism of ‘who and where the poor are’; and (3) have a concrete coordination among social protection agencies for better delivery of programs and services to Mindoreños.
Identifying who and where the poor are
PGOM had difficulties in managing the information system. The process of selecting real poor was a big question and the uncoordinated delivery of local programs is another issue. In 2011, Listahanan database (list of names of poor families) was shared to the provincial government under the Memorandum of Agreement on data sharing through which inaccuracies and duplications of beneficiaries’ records and memberships were validated. Thus, identification of beneficiaries became easy, quick and relevant.
“Dahil sa Listahanan, madaling tukuyin kung sino at nasaan ang mga nangangailangan kaya mas napapabilis ang pagbibigay ng kaukulang tulong para sa mga mahihirap,” said Provincial Welfare and Development Officer, Teresita A. Umbao. The DSWD database was utilized in the implementation of localized social protection programs under SICAD intensification.
SICAD Gains
Under this flagship reform strategy, programs and projects on education, health and medical services, livelihood programs and other social services are implemented. The Paaralan para sa Kalibliban (PPSaKA), is a continuing program of PGOM in coordination with the Department of Education hires annually contractual teachers for deployment to public schools in far-flung communities. Also, Integrated Scholarship Program to value the significance of education was employed. To date 909 Listahanan identified-poor are covered under this grant. Aside from the regular scholarship aids, short educational assistance through Pang-alalay sa Edukasyon are also offered to indigents totaling to 563 high school and college students. These address the problems of illiteracy and inadequacy in number of teachers in rural public schools. Scholarship assistance was prioritized for intellectually capable students and those who have the aptitude for technical skills training but cannot pursue higher education due to financial constraints. This democratizes the opportunities to access on free education for the Mangyans, an Indigenous People (IP) in Mindoro.
The lack of health facilities and limited access to medical services are among common social problems encountered. In fact, Listahanan data recorded 126, 768 households in the province having no access to health facility. This prompted the continuous provision of medical care activities encompassing free-consultation, minor surgeries, dental services, and free on-the-counter medicines. Nonetheless, PGOM has enrolled 86,000 poor families to Philippine Health Insurance Cards. The achievement of a universal Philhealth coverage with reliable data source of beneficiaries in the province is accounted through maximizing Listahanan data.
On the other hand, about 28,000 houses in Oriental Mindoro were made of light materials and some 30,000 households have no toilet facilities. This alarming truth motivates the local government in the implementation of Core Housing Program (CHP) and emergency shelter assistance. To date, 352 families received shelter assistance and 69 families for CHP.
“Ang tulong pinansyal mula sa lokal na pamahalaan ay malaki ang naiambag para madagdagan ang puhunan ko sa aking pagnenegosyo,” said Leona Quinzon of Calapan, beneficiary of PGOM livelihood program.
Employment is one of the basic factors toward economic development. According to DSWD database 64,458 individuals (15 years old and above) are unemployed that largely contribute to the magnitude of poor households. In response, Livelihood Assistance Programs is created through interventions from the local government units. The result 148 beneficiaries of livelihood programs for senior citizens, 38 beneficiaries for Self-Employment Assistance (SEA) Programs and 65 recipients for SEA for IPs.
Convergence Impact
SICAD converges and aligns the resources and competencies of the stakeholders by creating the necessary mechanisms, including structure and systems, that can push for tripartite cooperation in the area. In this effort, it provides access to short-term demand-driven skills intended for under-privileged beneficiaries for entrepreneurial and self-employment capacities. For instance, the PGOM has ‘Sanayang Entrepreneur’, a short-term intensive training program to develop entrepreneurial skills. The training includes agricultural entrepreneurship intended to prepare beneficiaries for self-employment.
The convergence of social welfare programs which includes the localized Philhealth, Self-Employment Assistance, shelter assistance and core housing project, scholarship aids and other short-term initiatives of the provincial government effectively address the problem on poverty. Thus, the province of Oriental Mindoro adheres in the government’s unified goal of leaving no one behind. ###
