JICA, DAP launch workplace improvement program in ARMM

COTABATO CITY, Philippines - Hundreds joined Tuesday’s symbolic launching of the “5s program” to ensure the orderliness of all offices in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

The 5s means seiri, seiton, seiso, seiketsu and shitzuke, which mean sort, systematize, sweep, standardize, and self-discipline, respectively, in Nihongo.  

The ceremonial application of the 5s program in the autonomous region was led by ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman and representatives from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the Development Academy of the Philippines (DAP).

The 5s program was pioneered in Japan, whose citizens are known for their cleanliness, orderliness, resilience and discipline in maintaining wellness in their workplaces and homes.

The DAP and JICA are both helping the Hataman administration carry out its comprehensive reform agenda intended to improve the regional government, known in the past as hotbed of corruption and where thousands of “ghost employees” were listed in old payrolls.

Secretaries of different line agencies and support offices under the Office of the Regional Governor, touted as “Little Malacañang” of the autonomous region, and their subordinates helped each other clean their offices and disposed off everything that are not needed to maximize the utilization of spaces in their respective workplaces.

The ARMM’s Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, which has the largest office compound inside the 32-hectare regional government center in Cotabato City, had the most number of employees that joined in Tuesday’s 5s launching program.

Kadiguia Rakman Abdullah, DAF’s regional information chief, said their regional secretary, Makmod Mending Jr., led them in cleaning and rearranging all offices under the department in compliance with the ORG’s 5s implementation directive.

“Now we can see and feel the good effect of this program. We ought to practice this even in our homes,” Abdullah said.

A team comprised of 5s experts had earlier rated as “5s compliant” the office of John Magno, assistant regional education secretary for operations, even before the regional government could launch the program in all ARMM departments and support offices.