Renaissance

Bencyrus Ellorin

THE 2017 Galing Pook Award garnered by Cagayan de Oro City not only affirms the “build back better” strategy of rehabilitation post-Sendong disaster; it is also manifests the city’s great revival from the dark ages.

Truly, Cagayan de Oro City is in a renaissance.

The city, represented by Mayor Oscar Moreno, received the “Oscars” of Philippine local governance when it garnered the Galing Pook Award for “Rising up from the mud” on Oct. 12. This year’s award is the second for the city.

In 1996, Mayor Pablo “Ambing” Magtajas won for the city its first Galing Pook Award for the Agora Mobile Street School for Street Children. According to the citation of the Galing Pook Awards, the project “reduced the number of street children in the city. Children who used to wander the streets is search for income have been able to rise from poverty through education.”

In the next 20 years, the city did not blink in the radar of good governance. It was dark.

Of that 20 years, 12 years was a one-man rule, which was briefly broken by the three-year Tinnex Jaraula administration. Then about five years of earnest building-back better.

The catastrophic impact of Tropical Storm Sending (Washi) fomented the widespread clamor for change in the City of Golden Friendship.

When Mayor Moreno took the helm of the city, there were high expectation of a sharp turn-around of the city in terms of good governance. As we have observed and experienced now, building back better the city is a tough task.

The sheer impact of TS Sendong, around a thousand deaths and around P2 billion in damages is hard to rehabilitate. But in five or so years of hard work to rebuild the city has shown good results. And that is even aggravated by obstructionist politics which turned out to be legacy of the fallen political kingpin, unfortunately.

The panelists of the Galing Pook Awards are topnotch and prominent professionals, bankers, professors, former cabinet members and social activists. Competition was stiff. The 2017 edition of the Galing Pook  Awards started with 158 entries. It was cut down to 44.  And thorough field validation, the panelists cut the number into 20 finalists. And from the 20, 10 were given the Galing Pook Award.

They found merit in Rising up from the mud and even realized that the building up better of Cagayan de Oro is made more difficult by political obstructionism.

Thought leader and social activist Edicio dela Torre commented during the presentation of Mayor Moreno last Oct. 11 at the Novotel Hotel Grand Ballroom that the entry should be “Rising up from the mud and political obstructionism.”

The Galing Pook Award affirms the three-pronged strategy of Mayor Moreno: 1. Kurambos; 2. Judicious use of local special funds; and 3. Engaging the community.

Mayor Moreno was sharp when asked how he overcame the odds stacked against him.  “I have to be firm, perform well and more importantly,

engage the community,” he told the panel.

Earlier on, he was introduced as the most “harassed” mayor of the country, in reference to the multiple cases thrown his way by the political opposition which has failed to move on.

At the rate of Cagayan de Oro is rebuilding it should be doing fine. It took the city of New Orleans 10 years to say “Mission Accomplished” in its rehabilitation work after it was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Yes, Cagayan de Oro City is on a renaissance and the initial successes in building back better is now starting to resonate.