San Fran takes pride as 1st eGWEN champ

CEBU, Philippines - Success comes in one million efforts out of one million ideas converted into one million small actions done with passion.

In a nutshell, that’s how San Francisco did it.

After scrutinizing all towns and cities under the jurisdiction of the Cebu provincial government on a multitude of performance criteria that can be summed up in four categories: environment, health, governance and heritage, San Francisco (in Camotes Island), headed by Mayor Alfredo Arquillano emerged as grand champion.

The P1-million peso prize to the municipality is just one of the rewards. More than that is the fulfillment of the people behind the victory of the municipality for being named the champion of the first-ever eGWEN award (short for Expanded Green and Wholesome Environment that Nurtures) by the province in consonance with its celebration of the 440th founding anniversary. Who are they? The unnamed person from the remotest barangay to the hands-on mayor who is the ultimate embodiment of a “catalyst”, where altogether they create that “synergy”.

The relevant question is how the town did it. How could they have perfectly motivated people in the town, turn them from indifference to being active players in the municipality’s transformation? 

The big secret is – it started with a catalyst who ignited the flame to turn passion for positive change to action. It started with someone’s listening heart and will to serve. It started with the town’s leaders being involved in the needs of the town’s ordinary people, who, in their daily lives, wanted small changes to make living a little bit convenient. 

The town’s leaders believe that there is no better way to multiply and sustain improvement and change than to get everybody involved. In the municipality, there is no such thing as “the governed” as everybody “governs” the town, in different capacities. Some take charge implementing specific tasks; few others take charge of innovative thoughts. The change is a combination of a multitude of small ideas from unnamed persons in the smallest purok in the barangay to the efforts of the town’s leaders to involve each and every component barangays in the implementation of projects.

Geared for the protection of the environment and in line with its goal of a sustainable development, the municipality implemented the eGwen, a zenith of sorts for the work done by the Provincial Committee on Sites, Relics and Structures to educate and coach local government units in participatory cultural mapping, conservation management planning and museum development.

The documentation of such projects was submitted to the Provincial Committee on Sites, Relics and Structures to evidence the municipality’s efforts in participatory cultural mapping with the inventory of their heritage sites, relics and structures. San Francisco fulfilled its tasks and went further by repeating the process down to the barangay level and establishing community or barangay museums, making them effective models in the field of heritage conservation. At the same time, in its goal to welcome and adapt novel practices and preserve the town’s tradition and custom to create awareness and appreciation to the public and the future generation of its legacy, the municipality conceived the revival of an effective “purok” system where the cascading of tasks and responsibilities was made easy. San Francisco executed the project and involved the barangays in this field of heritage conservation.

The town is a work in progress. The townsfolk never stop there. They are challenged to maintain the status quo even if, in the first place, the award is only a bonus. The greater achievement lies in the change of the people of San Francisco’s perception of their role in the community. In a capsule, each of the locals is imbued with a firm conviction that it is a moral imperative to actively create the society they want to live in, rather than act as mere spectators in the unfolding of San Francisco’s history. To their end, the people of San Francisco, Camotes take pride in their claim that they “craft” the town’s destiny. — Joel M. Seno/MEEV (THE FREEMAN)