Puroks drive town’s success

By CHRISLEY ANN HINAYAS / Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc.
October 14, 2012

CEBU CITY  –  Think big, start small.

This is what Vice Mayor Alfredo Arquillano of San Francisco, Camotes Island, Cebu believes in when he established the purok system in the town.

During the recent expanded Green and Wholesome Environment that Nurtures (eGwen) Our Cebu Program Partners’ Conference, he attributed the success and development of his town on their focused efforts on grassroot level of governance – the puroks.

A purok is the smallest unit of governance composed of a number of households with an average of 20 to 50 or more number of members, depending on a particular geographical location or cluster of houses. Given the mandate through local ordinances enacted by barangay or municipal/city sanggunian, a purok can perform government functions with the coordination and supervision of the local officials.

“Puroks are the basis for community-based governance and empowerment. If all people will cooperate and move towards a common aim, each one of us can make a big difference in our towns,” Arquillano said.

He recalled how one incident had inspired him to revive the purok system in 2004.

“There was a group of black birds locally known as galansiang that caused a big branch of a pine tree to fall in front our hall. It was an incident that was impossible if only one bird made it. I know it was a message from above to take immediate actions,” he recalled.

After the incident, the creation of a purok system came to life. It started with a few willing puroks in the town proper where the municipality office is located. Only when the first one started to work and showed results that others followed.

“Dream for your community but start with those who are willing to cooperate. The involvement of the community in local governance enables us to be organized and draw out plans for the municipality,” he said.

Arquillano noted that the strengthening of puroks in the town enabled the people to be equipped with understanding and discipline on proper waste management and disaster preparedness.

“They are doing these things because they are acknowledging ownership of their projects and they feel proud. Now, we have cleaner and safer communities because people are doing something with a common vision,” he shared.

The delivery of basic services and implementation of programs and projects in the areas of health, education, environment, social services, economic, and disaster management of the Municipality of San Francisco are cascaded down to the puroks.

He advised that the municipality or city should have a ‘big picture’ on what they want to achieve in their areas and what actions should be taken to realize them.

“Don’t give dole-outs. The community should earn it. Development is not just about money. Community participation has a lot to offer than that,” he said, pointing out that environment and socio-economic problems cannot be solved by one person alone. It is the community who runs and manages their own places.

“Never stop thinking of good things to happen. We can make our plans possible if we help one another. Think big, start small. That is the concept behind the purok system,” he added.

Arquillano is glad that other municipalities in the province of Cebu have adapted the purok system in the barangays.

“Hopefully, local government units (LGUs) in Cebu will learn from our experience and be able to replicate our best practice. It is indeed that development starts from the smallest unit of governance. It is the community that builds the nation,” he disclosed.

At present, San Francisco, Camotes has 15 barangays and 120 puroks.

San Francisco, Camotes Island, Cebu, a recipient of the 2011 United Nations Sasakawa Award for Disaster Risk Reduction, highlighted the establishment of purok systems in their town as their best approach to mitigate the destructive effects of natural calamities.