By BIENVENIDO SANDAGAN
Kalahi-CIDSS Volunteer (Barangay Sub-Project Management Committee Chairperson)
Barangay Talinga, Leon B. Postigo, Zamboanga del Norte

With Mayor Rolando Tablezo, Kalahi-CIDSS Area Coordinator Maibel Bermejo, school principal Bernard Orilloza, and other local officials, Bienvenido Sandagan cuts a ribbon, formally opening the two-classroom school building for use.

It felt like there was a frog in my throat. I made notes for that day, but the funny thing was none of the words on the card made any sense to me. My knees were shaking, and I was drenched in cold sweat. I was in a nervous trance. Could I actually say something?

On that memorable January morning last year (2011), our community celebrated the inauguration of a much-needed facility – a new school building. I was tasked to give a simple speech of thanks. However, I was plagued with the same reservations I felt when I participated in Kalahi-CIDSS activities. I had doubts that I would actually be able to pull it off.

Leon Postigo, Zamboanga del Norte mayor Rolando Tablezo shares with DSWD-Kalahi-CIDSS staff and representatives of the Ateneo de Zamboanga Center for Leadership and Governance that after implementing the Kalahi-CIDSS project, people are now more curious about what goes on with local government development initiatives. They have learned to voice out their communities’ problems, those that further aggravate their poverty situation. More than that, Kalahi-CIDSS has capacitated even the poor to become development actors – taking stake in building the future of their communities.

After a little over two years of immersing in the community-driven Kalahi-CIDSS project, Leon Postigo, Zamboanga del Norte municipal mayor Rolando Tablezo says that what is more important than the infrastructures realized by poor community volunteers is the knowledge they earned and learning the value of participation in the development endeavor of the local government.

“I have realized that the infrastructures they implemented are only second to the knowledge that they have learned through Kalahi – that their participation is essential if we are to solve our town’s problems,” said mayor Tablezo during a Kalahi-CIDSS municipal assessment held last April 26.