Written by: Ronie Z. Bautista
The sustainability and expansion for Luzon and Mindanao of IPAT-SIAD started in a dream. This dream translated into a plan to make it happen. SEA, Inc. has decided that the expansion in Mindanao will start from Kauswagan, Lanao del Norte as the launching area.
The Mayor Rommel Arnado, LCE of Kauswagan, and the current President of the League of Organic Agriculture Municipalities and Cities (LOAM-C) committed to helping and pledge to accommodate (temporarily) the SEA Inc. Mindanao Team for proper coordination and security. He even helped to identify and short-listed the three possible Local Government Unit (LGU) partners. These short-listed LGUs would be subject to an area selection process using the criteria set by SEA, Inc. and Life Bank Foundation (LBF) Inc. as a funder to identify the 1st LGU Partner in Mindanao.
The SEA Inc. identified three LGUs after taking all preliminaries, exhaustive discussions, and considerations. These are the Municipality of Kolambugan in Lanao del Norte, Villanueva in Misamis Oriental both located in Region X or Northern Mindanao, and Sibagat in Agusan del Norte of Caraga Region. Out of these three LGUs, only Two (Kolambugan and Sibagat) responded positively by submitting their letter of intent expressing their interest in becoming the LGU Partner in Mindanao that would jointly implement the IPAT-SIAD Program.
Then, area selection commenced through courtesy calls to the respective LGUs and due diligence through area visits and site validation. The gathering of relative and collecting data through social media research, face-to-face interviews of key informants, and observation done in actual site visitation or inspection. The information gathered is consolidated and analyzed for final decision. And finally, the Municipality of Sibagat in Agusan del Sur is selected.
Why Sibagat? Sibagat satisfied all our criteria selection checklist. The LGU is a bonafide and even an active member/officer of LOAM-C; they received many consistent awards in governance and environment; strong and organized CSOs, various educational institutions, and Agricultural Organic Training Learning sites are also present; the consciousness of inner conditioning and its importance to governance is also observed and emphasized; they have already submitted their letter of intent; and lastly SEA will be helping them a lot in terms fulfilling their pursuit for sustainable development using the threefold partnership as an approach.
