Local execs into politics of caring GK way

By Chelo Banal-Formoso
Philippine Daily Inquirer

MANILA, Philippines—When Filipinos migrate to America, Canada, Australia or some other country reputed to be a zone of prosperity, it is usually because the government is negligent, the economy is in shambles, the society is crumbling, and they cannot see the good in staying.

And when Filipinos mobilize themselves and leave their zone of comfort to provide their countrymen a basic necessity like shelter, it is usually because the government is negligent, the economy is in shambles, the society is crumbling, and they cannot see the good in staying put.

So being a government official/politician is perhaps the worst credential to present at any gathering attended by these two groups of people. But at the recent GK 2024 Summit held in Boston, Massachusetts, in the United States, Camarines Sur Gov. Luis Raymund (LRay) Villafuerte Jr. proved there is no such thing as a tough crowd when you are a Gawad Kalinga partner.

Originally a church ministry founded by Tony Meloto and his colleagues in Couples for Christ, Gawad Kalinga has become a multisectoral movement with a tweaked Robin Hood complex. Its mantra—the best for the least—means those who have shall give so those who have not may have houses and communities where they can live as decent human beings and strive for a better future.

With the support of local and global donors and volunteers, there are now over 2,300 GK villages in 400 towns in the Philippines, according to Meloto.

“We can’t keep track of the number of houses but that should be over 150,000,” he said, adding that GK had enough land saved for 550,000.

Marketing man

Immigrants, those hyphenated Filipinos who have made something of themselves in the new country, are responsible for a good number of the existing GK villages (Meloto calls it patriotic philanthropy).

Their faith in GK has as much to do with the kind of leader Meloto is not—he is not a flash-in-the-pan activist, a scoundrel in government, or a slimy politician—as with the kind he is.

For one, he is a brilliant marketing man out “to engage every sector of the society, to bridge social gaps, [and] to transcend partisan politics, business rivalries and parochial interests” in the GK mission of nation-building.

Toward that end, Meloto organized the Boston summit and balanced the presentations from the private sector with show-and-tell from the national, provincial and local governments.

“I wanted to show that GK has broken the trust barrier,” he said.

Meloto couldn’t have done better than pick LRay Villafuerte to talk about Camarines Sur. On the second day of the powwow, before an audience of overseas Filipinos and international CEOs who least expected to be wowed by a third-generation politician and his disaster-prone province, Villafuerte proceeded to deliver the kapow!—complete with a slide show and a video.

For many years, the dream for Camarines Sur was to overcome crippling poverty,” said the governor, disarmingly young at 41.

He talked about a province that was beset by insurgency, as if getting hit by one typhoon after another was not debilitating enough.

It was, he said, a province that could not “come within reach of progress.”

Brand change

The first thing he and his team did, Villafuerte said, was to get rid of a poor image. They dropped the rather lengthy and stodgy name of the province and nicknamed it with something hip, something beckoning and something blue: CamSur.

The minute he said it, the stateside crowd must have thought of the ocean, or the waves a la Big Sur. Quite a hook.

After the brand change, Villafuerte worked with a rough-and-ready determination to turn his hugely ignored province into a global tourist destination. In so doing, he attracted investments.

Three years ago, they built the CamSur Water Complex (CWC) for wakeboarding, water skiing and other extreme water sports. Two years ago, they developed the Caramoan Peninsula; just last year, they opened the Lago del Ray Park.

Early reviews of the CWC have been good, with international publications hailing it among the best in the world. In fact, it was the venue for the 2,000 participants of the 2008 World Wakeboarding Championships.

Endowed with beaches, lakes, cliffs, caves and other natural wonders, the Caramoan Peninsula whetted the appetite for the tropics of some 12 million TV viewers in Europe when it was chosen as location for the reality TV show “Survivor France” 2008 series. More recently, the tide brought in the “Survivor Israel” cast and crew.

Lago del Ray Park, envisioned as the biggest water sports and recreational facility in the country, offers water slides, aqua wall climbing, sailing, jet skiing, kayaking and many other water sports.

Because of these world-class resorts—and here Villafuerte paused to give his audience time to catch its breath—tourist arrivals in CamSur have risen by more than 300 percent!

Build it and they will come, indeed.

“We are now the country’s No. 3 tourist destination, next to Boracay and Cebu,” CamSur’s governor announced, his bright eyes matching his ardor. The audience cheered.

Bigger business

In a subsequent interview, Villafuerte proudly pointed out that “we are the only province [featured in] the front page photo of the Inquirer four times in two months!”

He said he and his team had put up a website that resulted in an astonishing volume of business.

Also, they made their rates affordable so as not to exclude the local market. Pinoy tourists check in from March to June, Australians fly in during their winter (June to September) and Europeans arrive during their cold months (October to March).

Villafuerte said there was no reason CamSur could not beat Cebu and Boracay in tourist arrivals once it had an international airport. “Everything is cheaper in CamSur,” he declared. “We also have the advantage of being accessible by land. The drive from Manila to Bicol is beautiful.”

CamSur has lured not only travelers but also investors.

Villafuerte ticked off a list before his audience—an animation center, the first and only one in the Philippines to make an all-digital animation film (“Dayo”); a 2,000-seat call center, the first and only one in Bicol; an English, Japanese and Korean Language Institute, also the first and only one in the region; an information and technology park, the first in Bicol with Peza approval; and so on.

“From being the 39th poorest province, we are now the 10th richest in terms of income,” he announced. “From being No. 12 in rice production, we are now the country’s fifth largest rice producer.”

Answer to the question

These inspired changes should have been enough to impress any crowd, but as this was a GK meet, the question remained: What have you done for the least of your brethren?

Villafuerte had an answer. Through land banking, CamSur allocated 12,000 lots for its landless and homeless constituents so that now there is a GK Village in each of its municipalities. Upon his election, without actually having met Meloto, he gave full support to GK and soon the number of GK villages in the province grew to 44.

CamSur pioneered the GK Bed & Breakfast Inns to accommodate donors and volunteers visiting GK sites, foreign observers studying the GK model of community-building, as well as tourists tired of the usual sightseeing and eager to plant trees, milk a carabao and get to know the locals in the countryside (what is called “volunteer vacation” in the travel industry).

In October 2008, at the launch of the GK B&B Inns in the towns of Iriga and Libmanan, Meloto and his merry band of builders declared CamSur the GK Designer Province.

The B&Bs are now a livelihood source for the GK villagers who are paid for cleaning, cooking and other hospitality services. All profits go to the GK Fund.

(Offstage, the governor disclosed another future source of income for his GK villagers: bus stop cafés to be put up along the highway where there are GK communities.)

CEO mentality

“I discovered genuine public service through Gawad Kalinga,” the multiawarded Villafuerte told his audience.

After his talk, people approached him to commend him, some saying they had made donations to GK villages in CamSur. This was confirmed by Meloto, who said that among the provinces, CamSur had drawn the most number of donors for GK communities.

“Because people can see immediate results, we get more volunteers, corporate donors and partners from abroad who want to invest in CamSur,” Meloto told the Inquirer. “LRay gets things done because he has the CEO mentality. We need young leaders like him who are visionaries and will be able to get the project off the ground.”

A business graduate of De La Salle University, Villafuerte was running a flourishing export business with his wife Lara before he ran for governor and took over from his father, Luis Sr. (with whom he has had a publicly known feud).

Villafuerte is only one of 28 governors who have teamed up with GK. Meloto welcomes help from elected and Cabinet officials “without judgment, as long as they adhere to our standards of integrity, transparency and accountability.”

Besides donating land, government leaders help solve problems relating to taxes, road access and water supply for the developments.

Mayors et al.

Over 400 mayors have joined GK, some of whom were invited to Boston to showcase the transformations of their towns and cities.

Parañaque Mayor Jun Bernabe is only on his second term but already has 26 GK villages in his city. Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay, who is relocating 300 families from his turf to a 3.2-hectare property in San Jose del Monte, Bulacan, promised free college education to their children. Freddy Tinga, Taguig’s young mayor, presented slides showing GK communities with lofts and landscaping. If CamSur is the GK Designer Province, Taguig, with 20 GK villages, is the GK Designer City.

Even national officials showed up in Boston.

Vice President Noli de Castro, who keynoted the GK Summit, is responsible for the government’s housing agencies and has partnered with GK for the relocation of “informal settlers” along railroad tracks and in six provinces.

Sen. Francis Pangilinan, a GK partner since 2001, is the first senator to donate GK villages in 16 provinces through his countryside development fund. Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri, head of the Senate’s housing committee, has continued to work with GK alongside his father, Bukidnon Gov. Joe Zubiri, so that today there are GK villages in 16 towns in their province.

The audience did not scoff but soaked in the good news, took note of the good deeds, and trusted in the wisdom of Meloto’s words: “When the private sector gets to engage government in an honest way for the benefit of our citizens, we call it kalinga politics—the politics of caring.”

As Villafuerte himself said, “Gawad Kalinga is good politics.”

source

This is good news. Local government should be involved in building communities for the poor.