Much has been said and written about one of President Noynoy Aquino’s pet programs called the Private-Public Partnerships, or the PPP. This concept, as its name implies, involves the active collaboration between NGOs/people’s organizations and the local government units/government agencies in bringing about change in a given community, or the country for that matter.
This program has yet to take off in the national level but we in Negros Oriental must be proud to know that we have been into private-public partnerships for the last several years now.
The Negros Oriental Network of Non-Government Organizations & People’s Organizations, for instance, has a yearly undertaking called the Timbayayong Awards. This is given in recognition of the effective partnerhips between government and non-government entities.
This year’s grand winner of the Timbayayong Award is the partnership between the Municipality of La Libertad and the Nasunggan Farmers’ Association. Under this partnership, both institutions are bringing about change for the better by the introduction of better farming techniques.
The other winners of 2010 Timbayayong Awards are: Municipality of Mabinay and the Tuburan for Rural Women Empowerment & Development (1st runner up), and the Municipality of Amlan and the Bio-os Takuy-Diot Fishermen’s Association, who tied in with the Municipality of Amlan and Patulakas Inc.
This program has already brought about much improvement for the residents of La Libertad and its environs and is easily replicable by other LGUs and NGOs.
But there are also several other working private-public partnerships in other parts of the Province that are being recognized by the Tambayayong Awards for their ingenuity, practicability and effectiveness.
We laud the initiative of the NegOrNet and the provincial government of Negros Oriental for coming up with the Tambayayong Awards.
With each new award and recognition of the PPP accomplishment, the organizers give inspiration to the awardees, and hope to other communities that find themselves in similar situations and may be faced with similar problems that have been addressed by the awardees.
May this endeavor continue over the coming years.