E-Gwen: A private sector/gov't success story

I attended two presscons yesterday and coincidentally, they have its roots from my good friend, Sir Roberto “Bobby” Aboitiz. The first one I attended was the “Expanded Green and Wholesome Environment that Nurtures (E-Gwen) which was presided no less than Cebu Governor Gwen F. Garcia, E-Gwen Program Manager, Provincial Board Member Agnes Magpale and Sir Bobby Aboitiz and the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation, Inc. (RAFI) at the Cebu International Convention Center (CICC). The other presscon was on the 9th anniversary of the Coalition for Better Education (CBE) which was convened in year 2001 by Sir Bobby Aboitiz also with RAFI. What lifts up my spirit is that, these two programs are working beautifully and has helped in the development and growth of Cebu.

Before the presscon at the CICC began, the there was a plenary presentation by Mayor Alfredo Arquillano of the Municipality of San Francisco, Camotes entitled “Good Governance into the Mainstream”. San Francisco is the grand slam winner for this year’s E-Gwen Our Cebu Program Awards Grand Champion. One would not expect the town of San Francisco which is so far away from the mainland of the Province of Cebu to win against all the participants of this program.

Gov. Gwen Garcia linked the success of San Francisco, Camotes to the Suroy-Suroy program, where she pointed out that before the E-Gwen could even be implemented in Camotes, “We had to literally drag the tourists to go to Camotes.” She wasn’t exaggerating when she said that. But now that Camotes has been “discovered” it is now fast developing into a “must-see” tourist destination in Cebu. Camotes is the only place in Cebu that has a natural fresh water lake.

What is even more remarkable in this program is that, E-Gwen officials added Good Governance as new criteria to the existing criteria on health and sanitation, maintenance of parks and culture and the arts. What E-Gwen program manager was particularly proud of is that, the assessment and evaluation of this program is done not by the Province of Cebu, but by the different regional agencies, like Department of Health (DoH), Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG).

The E-Gwen program in partnership with RAFI hands out awards for Green Champion Award, Model Town Award and Good Neighbor Award. I asked Sir Bobby Aboitiz if he or RAFI was satisfied with this partnership; he replied, “We are creating a model for development and E-Gwen has become the motivation for LGUs to create a better future.”

I recall last year when Sir Bobby Aboitiz sold us his idea of the “Bugsay” or paddle as a symbol for the E-Gwen Program. Bugsay connotes teamwork, where everyone paddles in one direction in order to achieve one singular purpose - to make a very livable Cebu. Busay means the responsibility and accountability of one’s action, leadership by example and having the passion to make a difference.

Gov. Gwen Garcia also attributed the success of her E-Gwen program to the recent report by Travel+Leisure magazine that placed Cebu as the 3rd Best Island in the World Best Award for 2010. She pointed out that Cebu was number four last year. We have improved by a notch, despite the fact that there were no new tourism destinations within Cebu that was lately discovered. Hence, it had to be the success of the E-Gwen program, which literally raised the bar of excellence for the various towns. I guess the officials of our LGUs have embraced Gov. Garcia’s attitude that “Good enough isn’t really good enough!”

I fully concur with the Governor’s observations; after all, we can see a new sense of pride from the townsfolk when we do visit other municipalities. When asked whether E-Gwen would last, Gov. Garcia pointed out that she only has three more years left, but E-Gwen is a five year program, hence everyone should paddle with the E-Gwen program even if Gov. Garcia won’t be Governor anymore. So next, I suggested that they adopt a “Barrier-Free Tourism (BFT) program, which Agnes Magpale said she would.

On the other presscon that I joined, Globe Telecom’s Jeffrey Tarayao told me that he is taking on the hat as the only member of the Coalition for Better Education (CBE) who is not from Cebu. But he was proud of the fact that this project will soon be replicated in other regions because of its 9 years of helping improve the education programs of this country through private-sector, government initiative. Mr. Tarayao told us that kids are more adaptable to new technology than the teachers. Indeed, this is why there’s the Center for Teacher Excellence for this problem.

* * *

Email: [email protected]