DAVAO ORIENTAL – Amazed in discovering through social media that the province of Davao Oriental has a lot to offer, not just in its tourism destinations but in the different best practices, a team from the Province of Benguet has recently came to Davao Oriental for a learning visit.

The delegation from Benguet composed of 25 individuals led by Board Members Juan Coy Nazarro, Fernando Balaodan, and Bernard Waclin along with their department heads, made their benchmarking on October 17, 2019.

They were warmly welcomed by a team from Davao Oriental headed by Provincial Administrator Art Benjie Bulaong who was joined by Senior Board Member Nelson Dayanghirang Jr., Provincial Tourism Officer Miguel Trocio, and Happy Home Manager Emalyn Oliveros at the Lanes Kita-anan in the City of Mati.

Board Member Navarra said that upon learning that Davao has been practicing efficient good governance strategies, the team has shifted their visit from Davao City to Davao Oriental to see what this modest province has to offer in terms of public service.

Wanting to learn from a fellow Provincial LGU, Board Member Navarra added “We would like to learn from the best practices of Davao Oriental, especially in their ordinances, like the Environment Code. We are very interested because the success in its implementation here will also mean it will be successful if applied in our province,” he said.

The local lawmaker added that while their province is already enjoying a peaceful environment, they are also willing to know more strategies that they can adopt to boost their province’s peace and order.

Davao Oriental has championed peace and order efforts through its flagship program Nagkakaisang Lingkod-Bayan ng Davao Oriental Barangay Outreach Caravan, its implementation of President Rodrigo Duterte’s Executive Order 70 or Whole-of-Nation Approach to end insurgency, and Davao Oriental’s successful implementation of the Enhanced Comprehensive Local Integration Program (E-CLIP).

Ms. Emalyn Oliveros, the Center Manager of the Happy Home and staff welcomed the visitors at the Happy Home facility. At their tour, they were provided inputs about the process of enrollment of former rebels and their reformatory process inside the processing center.

The group was also toured at the world-class Subangan Provincial Museum where they were in awe upon learning the rich culture and history of the province as well as its struggles and successes.

After, the delegation proceeded to the 16th Sangguniang Panlalawigan for the last stop of their benchmarking activity.

Provincial Administrator Art Benjie Bulaong expressed his profound gratitude to the team from Benguet Province for choosing the Province Davao Oriental as their benchmark on good governance.

“We are happy because they discovered that our delivery of services, our programs are worth replicating. They said it was a learning experience for them, well, it was also a learning experience for us,” he said.

Davao Oriental is expecting more and more visitors, whom Governor Nelson Dayanghirang is more than happy to welcome and share with his province’s best practices.

As he said in earlier interviews, “we will be happy to share with them what we have, our best practices, because we want them to experience the fruit of our initiatives, our endeavors towards prosperity”. By Neela G. Duallo/Photos by Eden Jhan Licayan