ZAMBOANGA DEL SUR—Vice Mayor Nacianceno Mejos Pacalioga of Dumingag town, this province received Jose Edgardo Campos Collaborative Award last March 6 – 7 from World Bank.
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| Dumingag Vice mayor Nacianceno M Pacalioga |
The
first forum on Global Partnership on Collaborative Leadership for Development
of World Bank was held on June 1 – 3, 2016 at the headquarters in Washington,
DC, USA.
About
300 participants attended the forum coming from different countries around the
world.
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| Dumingag mayor Mark Pacalioga |
Meanwhile,
during the March 6 – 7, 2017 forum the body awarded Vice Mayor Pacalioga the
Jose Edgardo Campos Collaborative Leadership Award as Lifetime Achievement
Award -- the highest award of the institution.
Some
five leaders from Bangladesh, Colombia, Tonga, Tunisia and Philippines also
received some leadership awards.
President
Rodrigo Duterte sent Secretary Leoncio Evasco to USA to accompany Pacalioga and
to extend appreciation to the institution over their effort.
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| the peoples and the employees of Dumingag Zambo Sur happy for the recognition they prepare program for the vice mayor. |
It
maybe recalled that Nacianceno Mejos Pacalioga – known in his hometown as Mayor
Jun – must have spent a happy childhood on his family’s farm because the
passion for agriculture.
After
his studies he started his professional career as a community organizer, but he
always envisioned that he could best help society as a politician.
His
first political engagement was the town council of Dumingag. After 9 years as
deputy mayor, he was elected mayor in 2007 in a very tight election race. In
the center of his political campaign stood the development of organic
agriculture as one pillar of an integrated concept for a sustainable rural
development.
Mayor
Jun is responsible for about 50,000 people living in 44 villages.
In
many of the villages, some of which are very difficult to reach, the
inhabitants belong to the indigenous Subanan tribe.
The
economic situation in Dumingag, however, is his greatest challenge as 90% of
the people there live below the Philippine poverty level.
Together
with the municipal employees and the people of Dumingag, the “Genuine People’s
Agenda” (GPA) was developed as the basis for the sustainable development
program.
The
program encompasses 15 strategic items such as the development of organic
agriculture or the improvement of health services, environmental protection,
security, peace and tourism. The implementation of the development agenda
already begins in nurseries and in schools.
All teachers are trained in the basic
principles of organic cultivation and organic agriculture was incorporated in
the curricula as a mandatory subject. Biological cultivation not only expanded
into the teaching schedule of the agricultural technical college but the entire
college was converted to “organic.”
