The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) awarded Mayor Ramon Orfanel of Catanauan, Quezon Province as the Best Municipal Local Chief Executive (LCE) in the 2nd National Bayani Ka! Awards for his contributions and support in the implementation of the Kapit Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan-Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (Kalahi-CIDSS) program.
The Bayani Ka! Awards is an annual recognition of notable community volunteers and program partners who have actively promoted and participated in the community-driven development (CDD) strategy of the Kalahi-CIDSS program in their respective communities.
Since the start of the Kalahi-CIDSS implementation in the town of Catanauan in 2010, Orfanel has been supporting the program by leading technical reviews of project proposals with community volunteers, visiting and monitoring communities during sub-project construction and providing beyond the needed cash and in-kind counterpart for the program implementation.
“Bilang Mayor, ang alam ko lang dati ay ang salitang ‘I’ sa pagsasagawa ng mga proyekto sa aming bayan. But because of the thrust of Kalahi-CIDSS to empower the people, I have learned the power of ‘we’ in effectively improving the town of Catanauan,” said Orfanel in his acceptance speech during the awarding ceremony last February 9, 2016.
Other awardees recognized during the ceremony were Marcelo Gusanan from Sultan Kudarat (Best Volunteer), Narcissa Paraso from Nueva Ecija (Best Barangay LCE), and Governor Arturo Uy from Compostela Valley (Best Provincial LCE).
DSWD Undersecretary Camilo Gudmalin acknowledged the awardees for exemplifying the Bayani spirit of giving more of themselves for the development of their communities.
“We are thankful that you are giving a chance to make democracy come to life. Let us work together to get communities out of poverty,” said Undersecretary Gudmalin in his message to the awardees.
The Kalahi-CIDSS is a poverty reduction program of the DSWD that follows the CDD strategy which empowers local residents to get involved in the development process of their communities. It also aims to improve local governance by influencing leaders to practice engaging ordinary citizens in the decision-making and implementation of projects for greater transparency and accountability of community projects.
Since the start of the Kalahi-CIDSS implementation in Catanauan, there are already 214 completed community subprojects including farm-to-market roads, school buildings, health centers and water systems, which addressed the most pressing needs of poor communities in the said town.
To date, the town of Catanauan implements the Makamasang Tugon modality, which is an incentive grant of the Kalahi-CIDSS to good-performing municipalities that are capable of implementing community projects through the CDD strategy.#