By JUNE BLANCO
Office of the Governor United States Ambassador Kristie Kenney Friday launched twin programs and
inspected US Agency for International Development (USAID) assisted projects in
Bohol.
Mixing business with leisure, she found time to view the Chocolate Hills from the
observation deck accessible through a flight of concrete stairs with 214 steps
where she was superfluous with her adjectives in describing the panorama.
At the project launch of Going Green: An Environmental Toolkit for the Tourism
Sector and signing of the memorandum of understanding for the Bohol Childhood TB
Control Program at the MetroCentre Hotel and Convention Center, Kenney said the
gathering was a celebration of partnerships.
Bohol already has a strong linkage among the funders – USAID included, the
non-government organizations (NGOs) who implement the projects and the
stakeholders who actively participate in such implementation.
Tasks are made easier with more hands to do, Kenney observed.
For his part, Gov. Erico Aumentado said he has taken partnerships even a step
farther: he taps several partners when possible so that there would be a
convergence of efforts and pooling of usually meager government resources for
bigger-impact projects no matter how small they may be.
Kenney witnessed Aumentado, the Department of Health and the Linking Initiatives
and Networking to Control Tuberculosis (TB LINC) sign the MOU after Provincial
Health Officer Reymoses Cbagnot presented a brief overview of the program.
She and David Valdez, president and CEO of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) later
presented sample toolkits to Aumentado, Rep. Edgar Chatto of Bohol’s 1st District,
and to the public – after Nederev Saño, WWF Coastal Resources and Fisheries
Conservation Officer for Bohol and Cebu described its contents.
Saño said not only does the toolkit ask the tourism sector to help protect,
conserve and preserve the environment, but it teaches people how to do so.
Aumentado met the ambassador at the airport, after which she proceeded to the
tarsier sanctuary in Corella town. Unlike the rather ‘domesticated’ tarsiers kept
by some entrepreneurs along the Loboc River for tourists to hold and take pictures
with, the tarsiers, nocturnal by nature, they are in their natural habitat in the
sanctuary.
From Corella, Kenney’s party proceeded to the Chocolate Hills, and to the Soil and
Water Conservation Foundation tree nursery in Bilar town.
By noon, the party proceeded to Loboc where Aumentado, Loboc Mayor Leon Calipusan
and Rep. Edgar Chatto met the group at the tourism center. The governor presented
her with a symbolic key to let herself in to the province while from the arts and
crafts display, Calipusan gifted her with a bag of her choice.
Aumentado treated the party to lunch at the Riverwatch Floating Resto that cruised
up the Loboc River going to the small falls called busay. On the way back, the
floating restaurant stopped next to a raft where children and teeners with
ukeleles serenaded her with jivy songs.
She and Aumentado later exchanged tokens: hers was a coffee table book while aside
from the key earlier, Aumentado also gave her Boholano delicacies, the Peanut
Kisses included.
From the MetroCentre, Kenney proceeded to station dyRD for a live radio interview
also heard worldwide though the Internet, and on to the lying-in center in Dao
District, Tagbilaran City – a USAID-assisted project of the Integrated Midwives
Association of the Philippines (IMAP-Bohol).
Aumentado sent her and her party off later at the airport. She had planed in by
Cebu Pacific (CEB) and planed out by Philippine Airlines (PAL).
In her party were Daniel Moore, Oliver Agoncillo and Kevin Donahue, Philippines
Environment Office Chief, environment officer and trip control officer
respectively all of USAID, Valdez and a security officer. Peace Corps Volunteers
stationed in Bohol, namely – Diana Hennion, Jessica LeMieux, Anne Park and Mark
Thompson.
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