schoolscolleges2020 hed news


PILIPINAS SHELL AND XAVIER ATENEO. Community leaders from barangays Puntod and Macabalan of Cagayan de Oro City undergo a barangay governance enhancement course. Contributed photo.  

By Mary Ann Chiong

In partnership with Pilipinas Shell Foundation Inc (PSFI), the Governance and Leadership Institute (GLI) of Xavier University - Ateneo de Cagayan organized a leadership and barangay governance enhancement course for the leaders and residents of barangays Puntod (on June 27-28) and Macabalan (on July 10-11) in Cagayan de Oro City. 

During the workshops, the two barangays identified priority concerns which they could refer to when making their plans. 

For Brgy Puntod, they identified disaster risk reduction and management (DRRM), illegal drugs, health and sanitation, traffic management, and sustainable livelihood as priority issues. 

Barangay Macabalan, on the other hand, identified the following as their top concerns: absence of a Materials Recovery Facility (MRF), illegal drugs, DRRM, informal settlers, increasing number of out-of-school youth, health, and political patronage.  

Participants also identified other stakeholders in their barangay who could help in addressing their priority concerns. The case study “Bakit Namatay si Rosario,” one of the activities during the workshops, particularly struck the participants and opened them to a Systems Thinking approach in analyzing poverty situations. 

In implementing its social development programs, PSFI chose to tie up with barangays Puntod and Macabalan for being the fence line communities of their North Mindanao Import Facility (NMIF).∎