Thank you Bohol (Part 1)
by Governor Art Yap
At the outset, allow me to thank Dr. Ryan Tirol and Editor in Chief/Managing Editor Ardy Araneta-Batoy for this great privilege given to me to write a column in The Bohol Tribune on a fortnightly basis. I must say that it is welcome since writing allows one to clarify one’s thoughts and perspectives on various issues.
As we move further away from Election Day 2022, and move close to turnover day June 30, 2022, I can feel a great excitement from people on the ground. For the first time since President Ferdinand E. Marcos took his oath of office, his namesake and son, Ferdinand “Bong Bong” R. Marcos, or popularly called BBM, was proclaimed this week as the country’s 17th President with a majority vote. Garnering, as well, a great majority vote was Vice President Sara Duterte who was proclaimed together with President BBM as the Philippines’ 15th Vice President.
As we move towards June 30, 2022, I feel sad that I will not be part of the great events that will shape the future of Bohol but, nevertheless, I can only feel gratitude for the chance and opportunity our people gave me to serve Bohol as Governor at very difficult crossroads in our history from 2019-2022.
When I entered office in 2019, no one could prepare for the fact that in less than a year, our economy will close down for more than two years because of a global pandemic, affecting the world and directly, the jobs and livelihoods of more than 300,000 Boholanos.
Nobody was also prepared for the fact that just when we thought we were ready to begin the slow rise to recovery, we will be met with the ferocity of Yolanda-like damages through Typhoon Odette last December, 2021. To date, assistance for more than 200,000 families whose homes were damaged by Typhoon Odette, have not yet been received by those affected families.
But with perseverance and sacrifice, we were able to survive Covid 19. Around us, Provinces registered higher than normal infection and death rates but Bohol, through the cooperation of the Mayors, Baranggay Officials, Medical Frontliners and our people, managed to keep infection rates low as against our total population. At the height of our Covid surge, we had no more than 3,500 cases as against more than 1.4 million local residents.
Of course, our disciplined approach following the IATF policies was not fully understood by all our people and during the elections. I was told that there were people who did not support me because of our Anti-Covid Protocols. I guess that is the risk public officials must take when hard choices need to be made. We tried our best to remind people that we were implementing National IATF Rules and not our own rules and regulations. But apparently, not all understood that message especially at a time when news can easily be faked and twisted for political ends.
Unfortunately, people may have failed to remember that our Provincial Government facilitated the return to Bohol of more than 43,000 Locally Stranded Individuals and more than 20,000 OFWs. People may also have forgotten, that for Boholanos who could not come home and needed some financial assistance, we devised a system to send them at least PHP 2,000 each through their families in Bohol. That assistance amounted to more than 23 million pesos. We were also the first Province to own and operate our own PCR laboratory which was effectively used to ensure the safety of people coming in and out of Bohol.
During the 2019 Gubernatorial Campaign, people did not believe me when I said that for job creation in the province, we were primarily dependent on Tourism. When Covid 19 hit the Philippines and Bohol in particular, that was the time the Public believed and realized how big the impact of tourism was on Bohol’s jobs and livelihoods. Bohol was on a standstill during those ghost months when flights stopped and inter-island shipping froze. Businesses closed and people started losing jobs.
In an effort to ensure we could keep as many jobs open as possible, we kept agriculture and construction open. People who were engaged in infrastructure building as well as other forms of construction, were allowed to continue to operate. Our local quarry operations were never shut down at any time of the Covid 19.
Families were encouraged to keep up farming and fishing. In fact, youth and senior citizens who were involved in farming were exempted from lockdown protocols. We even allowed Senior Citizens extra days in a week so they can leave their homes to attend to their personal tasks. This Policy of leniency towards our Senior Citizens was in stark departure to national policies where Senior Citizens were effectively locked down for more than a year adding to so much tension and stress not only for the Senior Citizens, but for their families and also for the youth.
The Youth were most especially vulnerable. At no other time are the youth so connected to the world through social media, but are also so isolated and wanting for care and attention. Many families were dislocated and many OFWs lost their jobs adding to great pressures at home. For this reason, we created a special Program for the Youth called LAUM Bohol.
The Laum Program was conceptualized to house 5 sub-component projects that was targetted to address issues affecting the Youth especially psycho social and mental issues. Five sub-component programs were created specifically: AMOMA or psycho-social therapy, ABIBA or mental well being advocacy, DUWA or sports program, BANSAY programs for livelihood training and DAYAG for cultural development programs. Today, this Program is responsible for reaching out to hundreds of youth and holding their hands when they confront loneliness and depression among other challenges. Last year, the LAUM Program was recognized by the DOH in the Healthy Filipinas Awards as one of the top five mental health programs in the Philippines.
Also, just because of Covid we also did not suspend our milk feeding program for the vulnerable youth who were in their elementary years. These youth who were suffering levels of under-nourishment were specially targetted to ensure that their brain development will be assisted through their early formative years and ensure they will have a fighting chance to survive better schooling and allow them a shot at better jobs when they graduate. This Nutrition Program was adjudged the best Nutrition Program by the National Nutrition Council in Central Visayas in 2021.
(To be continued next week….Food Security, Water and Agriculture Support in the Time of Covid)