PCLCS CONDUCTS STRATEGIC ELA DEVELOPMENT LEARNING SEMINAR
By: Liza G. Diase
Participants composed of local government officials and department heads from three (3) local government units from as far as Region 4-A particularly the municipality of Baco, Oriental Mindoro; and the municipalities of Bauko, Mt. Province and Tinoc, Ifugao of CAR journeyed the expanse of their respective regions to attend the learning event on Strategic Executive-Legislative Agenda Development convened by the Portician Circle of Learning Consultancy Services (PCLCS) on August 28-30, 2013 held at the Baguio Crown Legacy Hotel despite the torrent rains that whipped the city of Baguio on the early morning of Wednesday, August 28.
The recent national and local elections often resulted to new sets of local officials thus the need for every LGU to revisit, revise and update their respective medium term development plan. The objective of the learning event is to share experiential methods and provide guiding principles for the local government units in formulating their respective ELAs in compliance with DILG Memorandum Circular No. 2004-64 dated June 1, 2004 issued by then Sec. Jose D. Lina Jr. which mandates every local government unit to develop its own ELA as their tool for local development.
Neophyte mayor Hon. Rey Marco of the Baco municipality expressed his gratitude and appreciation for having been invited to the seminar. “This is a very informative seminar. We travelled far for this and it’s worth it. We will update you after a year regarding on how far we have implemented our ELA based on our learnings from this”, the mayor stated.
Likewise, Vice Mayor Calyaen of Tinoc, Ifugao also thanked the PCLCS for initiating the training. “Our new mayor had wanted to join but there was a conflict in his schedules so he sent me to attend this. With the learnings I gained, I have to sit down with my mayor to discuss these things, and in the end, we hope that these will help the people in our municipality”, he said.
Also new to politics Lawyer-Councilor Mike Patting of the municipality of Bauko, Mt. Province also said that he learned a lot and these will be a great help in their delivery of public service in their town.
It was an interactive activity. The participants were encouraged to articulate their views and queries in the same manner that they were given updates and taught about comprehensive strategies in effectively crafting and implementing their development plans.
The topics discussed were a.) Realities and challenges of contemporary local development planning; b.) Strategic Local Development Planning: A must in local governance; c.) Policies and directives on Local Development Planning and the ELA as an effective tool in local development and good governance; d.) The Sectoral Divides: Packaging and Measuring the ELA through the LGPMS; e.) Plan-Budget Linkage; and f.) Strategic Executive-Legislative Agenda Development.
Speakers of this forum were experts from the offices of DILG, NEDA, and DBM all in CAR and PCLCS President and Executive Director Oscar Camantiles who shared his experiential applications as former local chief executive. ©