In the campaign towards food and nutrition security, alleviating poverty, and moving towards zero hunger, the Enhanced Partnership Against Hunger and Poverty (EPAHP) holds a four-day conference for different community-based organizations (CBOs) in the region at The Plaza Garden Hotel and Residences on July 4–7.
The EPAHP CBO Conference is a capacity-building activity that aims to capacitate CBOs in participating in government procurement, provide needed skills training for CBOs, and foster dialogue amongst the CBOs to come up with ways to address gaps that are being faced by these communities and organizations. The objectives are designed to be in line with EPAPH’s initiatives to enjoin CBOs to participate in government procurement for supplementary feeding programs for children, persons deprived of liberty, public hospitals, and the like.
EPAHP’s objectives were reiterated by Leo L. Quintilla, the Regional Director of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), in his speech, where he also drew inspiration from the need for community participation to supply supplementary feeding programs, which could create a mutual benefit for both parties.
“This is a great help in times of crises, but the challenge is how to connect these associations aside from connection [and] how to capacitate you to participate in government procurement. [With the help of] DSWD and other partners of the EPAHP, we are here to capacitate and help you to connect, participate, and gather [or] gain from these government resources”, Quintilla stated as he urges CBOs to participate in achieving the cause of the EPAHP.
The conference is participated in by 48 CBO representatives who are organized by partnering national line agencies which are clustered into six groups: Irrigators Association (IA) organized by and beneficiaries of National Irrigation Association (NIA), People’s Organization (PO) organized by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Sustainable Livelihood Program Association (SLPA) organized by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), Fisherfolks Organization (FFO) organized by the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), Farmer’s Association (FA) organized by the Department of Agriculture (DA), and Agrarian Reform Beneficiary Organization (ARBO) organized by the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR).
The four-day activity includes sets of topics delivered by different institutions designed to equip CBOs with necessary skills and knowledge and strengthen linkages with different partnering agencies in the movement towards no poverty and zero hunger as aligned to the United Nations (UN) Sustainability Goals 1 (No Poverty) and 2 (Zero Hunger).
Jeremiah Saturnino A. Aro, DSWD-CAR Operations and Monitoring Officer, opened the series of discussions for the jam-packed conference with an overview of EPAHP. Engr. Maria Cecilia Alonzo, focal person from the Commission on Audit, on the other hand, discussed the Negotiated Procurement-Community Participation (NPCP) to encourage CBOs to join government biddings in specific programs in which they are eligible to participate. While Lovely B. Genove and Emarose T. Wance, representatives from DSWD-CAR Procurement Section, ended the conference’s first day with an orientation on PhilGEPS registration.
On the conference’s second day, Karen Claire Balong-angey, Ellaine Bernadeth De Jesus, and Billie Cabatan, representatives from the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), educated the participants on the registration requirement for filing tax returns and tax exemptions for cooperatives. The participants also raised their concerns on different taxation issues each organization had experienced or is currently experiencing.
Following a heavy discussion, Dickson S. Aycud, Senior Cooperative Development Specialist from the Cooperative Development Authority-Cordillera Extension Office; Mikkaela Ognayon, a representative from Land Bank of the Philippines-Benguet Lending Center; Jamie Beth B. Galian, Science Research Specialist II from the Department of Science and Technology-Cordillera Administrative Region; and Job David Manalang, OIC ARD and Population Program Officer III of the Commission on Population (POPCOM)-CAR, discussed cooperative development interventions, the EPAHP Lending Program, food safety for food preparation, and family planning, respectively.
Discussions on digital literacy/marketing by Frauline G. Bentayon from the Department of Information and Communication Technology, supply-demand mapping by Jeremiah Saturnino Aro, and Eleanor Ayan, focal person on the Supplementary Feeding Program (SFP) of DSWD, wrapped up the discussions for the CBOs.
The activity also included a focus group discussion that allowed CBOs to share their challenges and their respective recommendations to address them, and representatives from DSWD, NIA, BFAR, DENR, DAR, and DA quickly addressed issues particular to their lines of interest and concern.
Noberto I. Pacio, a participant in the conference and the President of Tinongdan Indigenous People’s Organization Incorporated, shared that the conference allowed him to know more about EPAHP and its objectives towards helping CBOs like them.
“With this [conference], despite already having experience through different transactions with the government in Negotiated Procurement-Community Participation (NPCP), at least it enhanced and widened our knowledge on EPAPH that was only introduced to several CBOs recently, which they could also maximize, Pacio stated.
“No-orient naman na ang mga CBOs, kung pwede siguro may directive [from the government] na irecognize na yung participation ng CBO [in Negotiated Procurement-Community Participation] as to the implementation of EPAHP (As CBOs have already been oriented, we request that there should also be a directive from the government to recognize the participation of CBOs in Negotiated Procurement-Community Participation as to the implementation of EPAHP),”
EPAHP, with its strong-vowed partnership with different agencies, commits to continue to provide services for CBOs in reciprocity for the CBO’s initiatives to ameliorate the primary goal of the partnership, which is to end poverty and hunger. The conference is one of EPAHP’s strategic measures to widen its influence among CBOs, which would be instrumental to their campaign. By Mark Gonzalo D. Benter
