The SAGIP- MATA or EYE “I” CARE Program is a comprehensive surgery program managed and supervised jointly by the SOROPTIMIST INTERNATIONAL of DAVAO DEL NORTE  Tagum City Chapter, the UCCP Social Services Foundation, and the Davao Regional Hospital, and is supported by the LGU.  We have allocated P 400 K for microscopic surgery equipment and  P 300 K for supplies and medicines.  A total of 508 patients  have been operated on: 83 for pterygium excision and grafting and 192 for cataract surgery.  A total of 316 minor, medium and major surgeries on patients with facial deformities, goiter, myoma, hernia, etc. have been performed.  This is done every Friday at the Davao Regional Hospital Gym,  and patients come not only from Tagum City and Davao del Norte but Compostela Valley Province as well.  

	The program has caught the interest of other LGUs and we already had an initial agreement to expand the program by pooling our resources to subsidize and sustain it. It is worth mentioning here that because of Davao Regional Hospital’s significant participation for the success of the program, DRH was awarded accreditation from the Phil. Association of Ophthalmologists.

We implemented the Pulong-Tulong sa Barangay  last February and completed our rounds of the 23 barangays early  last December.

  This two-pronged program intended first , to hear straight   from the people the issues and concerns   affecting their day to day life; and, second, to bring   to them   the   medical-dental services that most of our barangay folks cannot avail of because , for some reasons, they cannot go to our health centers.

Statistics from our two  health offices who played a very significant role in this program,  show that a total of 46,655 clients have been served within the 10 months or so that  we have conducted the Pulong-Tulong. Those who were not attended to because of time constraints were served at the Health Centers.

Aside from being able to realign our priorities as a result of what we learned during these consultations in the barangay, the CHOs were also alerted to the prevalence of a tuberculosis infected pool in the barangays which require our  immediate  and focused attention.

While we have not yet attained our goal of zero-malnutrition, I am certain we are gaining headway in our drive against this malaise. The amount of P1M  we  have appropriated for the program has afforded us the chance to reach

out to 18, 836 pre-schoolers and 26,348 schoolchildren. Re-launching the  Hot Lunch Plus with DECS and the NGOs, we fed 1,049 pre-schoolers, and 1,978  schoolchildren identified as moderately to severely malnourished. The integrated approach we have    employed  which focused on the five impact programs for nutrition has earned for us the Green Banner Award for Outstanding Implementation of the  Nutrition Program,  city level, in Region XI. Ms. Ruby Junio,  the region’s Most Outstanding Barangay Nutrition Scholar is  from Barangay Madaum.

The support we extended to our City and Barangay voluntary blood services program also gained for us both regional and national  recognition when I was awarded the  Sandugo Award for Local GovernmentExecutive as best  implementor of the voluntary blood services program. Barangay Liboganon was also the region’s Best Among the  Best because of its exemplary  implementation of the barangay voluntary blood services program. I congratulate Barangay Chairman Candelario Jubac,  as well as all the Barangay 

Health Workers, all our health workers, in fact, and  our blood coordinators  for their efforts. While we are pleased with the  recognition we received, we are more after of the benefits of a safe and adequate supply of blood for our constituents. 

The additional six garbage compactors we have acquired will be delivered this April. That would mean faster and more efficient services from the Health and sanitation personnel  as they try to cope with the demand of collecting and disposing  the increasing bulk of garbage our  people generate. Our over-all efforts at environmental sanitation and beautification, including supplemental food production, while not yet the best, have proved worthy of  the prestigious  Gawad Pangulo sa KAPALIGIRAN, which is an integration of the Clean and Green and the 

Linis-Bayan Programs. For the second time, Tagum City has been awarded the Cleanest and Greenest Local Government Unit in Region XI, component city category.  We have also been named national finalist this year.

We have very relevant and responsive  programs that address several social welfare concerns regarding  women and  children,  child labor, the working youth, the elderly, the less fortunate, and those  persons with disabilities, including productivity  skills and capability building.

  While a considerable amount of the  Development Fund is  immediately allocated for  social welfare and development, our efforts at alleviating the living conditions of our people through this sector of public service is boosted by the President’s Lingap sa Mahihirap program from which Tagum City received P 500K for two additional day care centers. We also received funds amounting to more or less P 2.1 M  for poverty alleviation projects, livelihood  and capability building from DSWD through Vice President Gloria Macapagal and  from the Dept. of Labor and Employment.

I have also signed a Memorandum of Agreement in behalf of the 100 poorest among the poor families  in five depressed barangays who will receive P 10 K  each for housing assistance under the Lingap Para sa Mahihirap  through the National Housing Authority.

Beneficiaries come from the  barangays of  Pagsabangan, Pandapan, New Balamban, Nueva Fuerza and San Agustin. They are also recipients of Lingap Funds from the National Food Authority for ERAP Sari-Sari Stores.

Our social welfare and development programs have earned for us recognition and distinction not only in the region but in the country as well. Among these awards are: the Special Award for Entrepreneurial Development for our Sulong-Dunong livelihood program; the Outstanding Youth Club award; the KABALIKAT award for our Working Youth Center, among others. 

Putting a premium in early education for our children,  we have a total of 2,562 pupils in 64 day  care centers supervised by 60 day care workers. These are all subsidized by the City Government as our investment for early childhood development.  We have also organized the parents of those identified street children into the Tagum  Parents of Working Children Association (TAPAWCA) to address  juvenile delinquency problems, including child labor. We have already organized our Council for the Welfare of Children to look into concerns regarding child abuse.  

The senior citizens and the elderly are also well-taken care of. We have programs that cater to their welfare, including the differently abled in order to bring them back into the mainstream of society.

The Local School Board was allocated some P12 M from the General Fund and the Special Education Fund.  Construction, improvement and repair   of school buildings last year,  and the on-going construction and repair have been charged against this fund, including the  purchase of  quality tables and chairs worth more or less P 1.5 M, and the  musical instruments worth another P 1 M which were distributed to the different public  schools.

Support to non-formal education was also increased to over  P 550 K to cover honoraria for NFE teachers and coordinators. A significant development was the Memorandum of Agreement I

signed  with  the  Dept. of Education, Culture and Sports  integrating our cultural communities, including our Muslim brothers and sisters into our non-formal education program  to give them a chance to catch up with their Christian counterparts and afford them the  opportunity to rise above the complexities of modern living.

We have also greatly improved our scholarship package last year with the passing of City Ordinance No. 17, s.1999. With an appropriation of more or less  P 1.5 M, our City Educational Scholarship  Program (CESPRO) now gives  separate semestral allowances for books and uniforms and a monthly allowance for transportation, on top of the  tuition fees the scholars are receiving.   Each scholar  is  allotted  more or less P 13,000 per semester, as against the financial assistance  of  P 3,000 in the past.

Correspondingly,  with these new privileges, we have increased the  standard of grades – an average of 85% with no grade lower than 84%; but this is not  to make it difficult for them, but for them to work doubly

hard and develop that culture of excellence that will  enable them to become  competitive in rising up to the challenges of the modern times.

The year 1999 was also a year of hectic laying down of the necessary mechanisms, including policy foundations for economic development, livelihood opportunities and increased productivity for our farmers and fisherfolks and the rest of our less fortunate constituency.  

Through the Plant- Now - Pay - Later Program , which now have 149 farmer recipients, we hope to convince our people that there is money in agriculture. Through the program, we provide a loan package in the form of farm inputs

or  materials and technical assistance to qualified recipients. Initially, we have allocated the amount of P 2 M for this program which we consider very viable, not only because of its  promising  economic implications, but also because of its  impact on the environment and our efforts to rehabilitate our  dwindling watershed resources through reforestation.

The City has also allocated a considerable amount  as initial assistance  to our marginal food producers, particularly  those in depressed barangays. This assistance takes the  form of rice   and corn seeds, assorted vegetable seeds and fertilizers distributed  under the Rice/Corn/Vegetable Rehabilitation Program intended especially for those affected by the floods that occurred last year. Farmers’ Field Schools on Integrated Pest Management were also conducted to help the farmers by advocating earth friendly technology in the control of farm pests. Some 81 FFS-IPM graduates were turned out last year.   

The City Agriculturist’s Office also conduct activities to assist our marginal farmers augment  their income through livestock raising. The LGU has provided free vaccinations and deworming activities and distributed free vitamins to 3,206 heads of  various livestock in the city.

  For the coastal barangays, we have started with the continuing program of establishing a fish sanctuary. Towards this end, the  City Agriculturist's Office has installed 260 units of artificial  coral reefs and 

9,000 mangrove seedlings, particularly in Liboganon and Madaum.  We have also established our BANTAY DAGAT Program to protect the livelihood of our fisherfolks from  being encroached upon by  fisherfolks from other municipalities.

The City Government recognizes the role that socio-cultural activities play not only in attracting tourists and visitors to the city, but also its ability to unite the people and establish the bonding, the sense of belonging and camaraderie among them.

Therefore, banking on the alliance we have established with non-government organizations and tapping the dynamism of our barangays, we celebrated the first Araw ng Tagum City. This was highlighted by the Launching of the Musikahan sa Tagum City,  through  which  we hope to carve a  niche in the tourism industry by making Tagum City the music capital of the region, if not of the country. As an initial undertaking, we acquired over P 1 M worth  of musical instruments for the City Band  whose presence has enliven many fiesta and foundation day celebrations in the barangays.

We also acquired through the Local School board another P 1 M worth of musical instruments for the different Drum and Bugle Corps (DBCs) of public elementary and high schools.

Even our senior citizens were provided musical instruments to inspire them and allow them to enjoy their twilight years.

We also had the grandest Christmas and Millennium celebration last December. Working hand in hand with our NGO partners  and the business sector who played a very significant role in  generating the much needed resources to facilitate all the preparations, we made Tagum City’s giant Christmas tree stand tall and proud in front of the   City Hall with an animated Christmas display as  an added attraction in the background.

On New Year’s Eve, a very memorable 30-minute fireworks display enticed many Tagumeños to welcome the New Millennium in the streets of the city to watch the spectacular fireworks display and the  live band concert, again calling to the fore the spirit of unity among our people.

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