LAMBIGIT (Centrist Democratic Movement Federation of the Philippines)

GANITO KAMI SA KIWALAN, SANA GANITO DIN SA MAKATI

Delivered By the Hon. Roderico “Jun” Dumaug, Jr. Punong Barangay, Kiwalan, Iligan City

Chairperson, Lambigit-Centrist Democratic Movement Northern Mindanao

August 16, 2010,

During the Book Launching of Dr.Gaudioso Sosmena,Jr, entitled

"How to govern locally after winning an election: A guidepost"

With keynote Speaker,Fomer Senator Aquilino "Nene" Pimentel,Jr.

5th Floor Makati 1 Function Room, St. Giles Hotel, Makati Avenue, Makati City

“Ganito Kami Sa Makati, Sana Ganito Din Sa Buong Bansa!” this was the successful, spectacular campaign slogan of Vice-President Jejomar Binay last May 10 National Election because of this I voted for him and he won in Iligan City.Every time I watched and heard the voices priding the success of Makati and to make this all over the nation, I felt jealous but not angry, amazed but not dismayed. In my heart I said: because of our very highly centralized government, Makati is very, very lucky, Makati is beautiful, Makati is rich and Makati is an envy of other cities in our country.

Dr. Gaudioso Sosmena, Among Pinalanggang Anak Sa Mindanao, Senator Aquilino Pimentel, Dr. Peter Koeppinger, our friends from Konrad Adenuaer Stiftung, ladies and gentlemen: I respectfully thank our dear friends from KAS for giving me this opportunity to share briefly my experience in local governance especially in the Barangay and as the current Regional Chairperson of Lambigit- A Centrist Democratic Movement in Northern Mindanao.

I’ve been a Barangay Official for almost 18 years now, my political career started as the student council President of MSU-Iligan Institute of Technology,the SK Chairman in Kiwalan and at the same time a Singles For Christ leader at that time. I became a Barangay Kagawad and now I’m serving on my second term as Punong Barangay of Kiwalan, from the beautiful City of Iligan, Mindanao – a one and a half hour ride from the City of Golden Friendship where Sen. Pimentel lives, Cagayan de Oro City. I do not belong to a political family, in the history of our family, I am the only politician that is why it is difficult for me to win in an election but I’m not saying that I have difficulty in governing a Local Government Unit. Our family are once tenants of big landowners in Iligan City but education is very valuable to us and we highly believe that education is liberating, free us from poverty and indifference.

My Barangay, Kiwalan is the home of the country’s major industrial establishments. Within my territorial jurisdiction are PILMICO, a flour milling company, two cement factories, namely Iligan Cement Corporation and Mindanao Portland Cement Corporation, and a coconut oil milling company, the maker of the famous Minola, Granexport Corporation, several mining areas of other industrial establishments like ALSONS Cement and Maria Cristina Chemicals Industry, their subsidiaries, contractors and others. In 2004, PGMA proclaimed Presidential Proclamation No. 767 declaring a portion of Kiwalan as a Special Economic Zone and called it as the Agro-Industrial Park. I enumerate to you the various industrial establishments in my Barangay not for the purpose of making an equally proud statement to counter the City of Makati, no, it is not. I introduce to you my local government unit to impress upon your mind that my Barangay is a highly industrialized and a highly mineralized area. In fact there is a joke in Iligan City that says, only in Kiwalan where you can have bread as hard as the cement and cement as soft as the bread. This is because PILMICO-Pillsbury, a flour milling and bread making company is operating right besides a cement factory. All industrial establishments in KIwalan have their head offices located in this very rich City of Makati. Because of our highly centralized system of government, Makati is indeed very, very lucky. They are very proud in saying “We are like this in Makati (Ganito kami sa Makati).” What if my campaign slogan will spectacularly say like this: “Ganito Kami Sa Kiwalan, Sana Ganito Din Sa Makati!” This statement is not my own, this is my constituents pleas, wishes and aspirations and I am bringing it here in this economically powerful city for you to reflect and to think critically about it.

My point here is this: provinces, cities, municipalities and barangays that are so remote from the center of all government powers which is Metro Manila, will suffer great inequities in the distribution of resources. Worst of all local productivities are not fully gained by the localities that sourced them but are remitted to the National Central Government and to be allocated according to the discretion of the one holding that power to distribute. My Barangay is densely populated with industrial establishments, and we are the one directly affected and impacted by their operations. Pollution, environmental degradation, effect of social migration of people from other places to settle in our place to work and most are in a contractual status and are squatters, living in land not their own. This pattern is not unique for Kiwalan alone, this is happening in localities where industrialization in the provinces is also taking place. “We are like this in Makati” probably because the gains of our local productions are remitted to the National Government. Makati just like any other Cities here in Metro Manila has a big share from this. Our industrial establishments’ head offices are stationed here in Makati, this rich city is our country’s center of economic power. Because of Makati’s enormous economic power, it can make and unmake leaders of the country. Politics will play, they will get the big share and proud to say “We are like this in Makati. (Ganito Kami Sa Makati). According to Philip Camara in his article “Political Development and Fiscal Decentralization: Comparing the Philippines with China” an article he delivered in one of the Centrist Democratic Movement (CDM) gatherings in Cagayan de Oro, he said and I quote “In the Philippines, with its march to decline, it has become difficult to separate money from power.” This, I tell you my dear friends, is politically correct here in Makati. Makati has the money, it has the power. It has the power, it has more money. I do not blame Makati for this; in fact I appreciate their governance in some ways. I blame our centuries’ old highly centralized government, a system as old as the Spanish Colonialization and today is continually making us and our country as the sick, old man of Asia.

For local leader like me who is awesomely inspired by the role of the successor generations’ idealism and our role in nation building powered to us by KAS, we must do something novel and innovative for our Barangay to survive. We have to link to the NGOs, the CSO, the private sectors especially the business sectors who understand our plight, they are supporting our local projects and program. We have to locate them for we cannot rely on our meager share from the government. I have 3 Gawad Kalinga sites, a TESDA accredited community skills development program initiated by an NGO, the GDRIC and we linked with Ecoweb to monitor the mining operations in Kiwalan and in the preparation of our Disaster Risk Reduction Plan. If not for Senator Nene Pimentel’s authorship of RA 7160, LGUs utmost decay could have happened 2 decades ago. Right now, we are waiting for the amendment of the Local Government Code by introducing novel ideas on how the local government units becomes more benefited from its local production instead of it being taken away by the national government. Further, for Senator Pimentel to continuously proceed with his heroic campaign for a Federal Philippines, Mr. Senator, I am pronouncing it here together with our young friends of Northern Mindanao Lambigit CDM, we are truly committed for the establishment of a Federal Philippines. We are young professionals from Northern Mindanao and included in our group are from the Bangsamoro Region, the Caraga Region and the Zamboanga Peninsula, politically committed to the basic core principles of the CDM on (1) respect to human dignity, (2) on the social market economy and the call of today which is the (3) principle of subsidiarity. We called ourselves as Lambigit, meaning participation, concern, connected, aware and most of all to own all the challenges and to act together in solving the problems. Actually there is no accurate English or tagalog translation for Lambigit, this beautiful word is unique only for the Visayan speaking nation. And our Kalambigitan today is a Federal Philippines.

In conclusion, I presented one of the many bad realities of a highly centralized government. The inequities and inefficiencies are so enormous that it is contributing to the high profile and scandalous corruption in the national level and the ultimate decay of respect of the LGU on the capacity of the national government to lead this country solely. What we need now is a system where our local government units are given the highest opportunities to absolutely shape its development from the fruits of its efforts and with less intervention from the national government. Now is the time for our beloved country, considered to be one of the most literate, the only Christian nation in Asia with East Timor and the first democratic state in Asia, and let us stop once again of our being lagged behind from other ASEAN countries in terms of public governance and start to set an example by giving a greater chance to local government units to be significant in national development and to set an example of how a country can truly prosper under a Federal Government.