Published by Bohol Chronicle
Hinting the 2013 picture, a probable challenger in the gubernatorial derby finally draw the turf line when she rid her town of the services of the provincial administration's
pulse rater of the community's needs and concerns called Prosperity Team.
The Prosperity Teams has been designed to help strengthen existing puroks or sub-villages
by capacitating their purok leaders and volunteers through the Countryside Development Program: Purok Power Movement (CDP:PPM) defined under Executive Order 31 issued in 2011.
However, Carmen Mayor Conchita Toribio-Delos Reyes declared that her town is already progressive and peaceful and no longer need the military-initiated Prosperity Team or Pro-Team.
The mayor—who questioned the major role of people from the provincial government in Pro-Team activities—even advised to bring the Pro-Team to Balilihan, hinting that the town which happened to be the hometown of the governor needs their intervention
more.
In fact, an emissary approached the Prosperity Team on Thursday afternoon last week to relay the mayor's order to have the teams operating in Carmen pulled out.
During the Municipal Peace and Order Council (MPOC) meeting in the morning of the same day, Delos Reyes announced her decision to have the Pro-Team pulled out from her municipality.
In response to the mayor's move, Col. John Bonafos--commander of the 802nd Infantry Brigade--recommended the temporary suspension of the Pro-Team's operations in the barangays of Carmen town while the multi-agency Technical Working Group (TWG) assesses the concerns of the mayor.
Governor Edgar Chatto, who chairs the Executive Committee, concurred with the recommendations of Bonafos.
Delos Reyes—who had recently announced her plan to run for governor in 2013—said she had told Chatto that whatever lies ahead, she would always want them to remain in talking
terms.
She pointed out that it was the way the members of the Pro-Team—allegedly dominated by people from the
provincial government — asked the questions to the households regarding the issues, concerns and problems that they want addressed.
The Pro-Team allegedly asked the households what were the barangay officials doing that the problems in their areas remain unsolved.
This irked the barangay officials, prompting the mayor of Carmen to ask the commander of the 802nd Brigade, Col. John Bonafos, to pull out the Pro-Team which had already visited barangays Montesuerte, Villaflor, Buenavista, Katipunan, and Poblacion Norte in Carmen.
Mayor Delos Reyes added that being progressive, her town no longer needs assistance that are as simple as water-seal toilet and water pumps which the Pro-Team had distributed.
From this experience the mayor of Carmen declared that she can no longer allow the Prosperity Team to enter her town again.
She said the military is negotiating with her for some changes in the set up with the condition that people from the provincial government will no longer be involved.
The commander of the 802nd Brigade, for his part, explained that Carmen has been included in the first phase of their project because the town has a history of having been infiltrated by rebels in the past.
And, the Prosperity Teams are there to maintain the people's trust and confidence with the government so that the rebels will no longer convince them to support the armed struggle.
Other barangays covered in the first phase of the Pro-Team project are barangay Sto Nino in Talibon; Calanggaman and Pampang in Ubay; Nueva Estrella and Nueva Esperanza in Bien Unido; Concepcion in Danao; Paraiso in Mabini; Katipunan in Alicia; Panadtaran in Candijay; Matabao in Tubigon; Doljo in Panglao; Totolan in Dauis; and Kagawasan in Dagohoy.
Prosperity Teams, working as one to spread development at purok level, facilitate dialogues among sectors in the community to gather priority concerns which are segregated for immediate action by the concerned agencies of the government.
In a way, the Pro-Teams serve as bridge between the people at the purok level and the government for prompt response to the needs of the community.
ProTeams are assigned in five of the 29 barangays of Carmen, wherein each team comprise of community organizers, members of the Philippine Army from the 2nd Special Forces Battalion and the Bohol Provincial Police Office.
The teams conduct house-to-house visits to collect data and various development-related issues in the household level.
The Prosperity Team is the vehicle of the operational strategy adopted by the provincial government in partnership with the Philippine Army and the Philippine National Police to give substance to the provincial development agenda anchored on HEAT or Health and Sanitation, Education and Technology, Agriculture and Food Security, Tourism and Livelihood up to the Purok level.
The purok is a cluster of household members living near each other in a barangay providing mutual, common interests, security and clannish in nature.
The Purok System is a collaborative and comprehensive approach in social development and delivery of basic services to sub-villages defined under Provincial Ordinance No. 36, series of 2011.
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