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The Southwestern Ligawasan Alliance of Municipalities (SLAM)
"...May gobyerno pala!..."
("...There is government afterall!...")
Mayor Abdulkarim T. Langkuno of Paglat, Maguindanao quoted one of his constituents as having said this, indicating that government services are impacting on communities
The Southwestern Ligawasan Alliance of Municipalities or SLAM was officially created on June 25th, 2008. Four LGUS in Maguindanao namely Paglat, Datu Paglas, Sultan sa Barongis and General S.K. Pendatun came together to find common solutions to common problems. The idea of working together as an Alliance began in December 2007 at the LGSPA Executive and Legislative Leadership Development Course where several of the mayors had participated and listened to former Libungan town Mayor and current Board Member of the Cotabato Provincial Council, Ronaldo Pader, describe the experience of the LGSP II supported Pigcawayan-Alamada-Libungan-Midsayap-Aleosan Alliance popularly known as PALMA. Board member Pader, the first Chair of PALMA, shared how they have jointly and effectively worked on addressing common priorities of the five LGUs since 2002. PALMA won a Galing Pook award in 2007 for their Kabalikat PALMA Infrastructure Project which pooled municipal equipment, machinery, personnel and expertise from five contiguous towns for farm-to-market road construction.
Replicating the Kabalikat PALMA Infrastructure Project
Inspired by Mayor Pader’s description of how simple yet successful the Alliance was in achieving concrete results by systematically organizing the sharing of resources, Paglat LGU Mayor Langkuno was convinced it could be done in Maguindanao. He discussed the idea of working together in a similar manner with fellow mayors and with LGSPA assistance, hosted an orientation session on the Kabalikat PALMA Infrastructure Project. Board Member Pader was again invited to share more details about PALMA – how it was established, the difficulties it faced, the steps it took and the results it has been able to achieve. The four Maguindanao mayors wasted no time and committed to pursue the creation of a similar Alliance with the objective of facilitating development in their respective towns through the pooling and sharing of resources. The LGUs agreed on the basic principle that with combined resources, much can be accomplished in a shorter period of time.
LGSPA then organized a study tour for the four mayors and their key staff to visit PALMA, the first Alliance-to-Alliance visit for both PALMA and SLAM. Aleosan town Mayor Cabaya, and current chair of PALMA, updated the ARMM mayors regarding the total of 281.45 km of farm to market roads that have been constructed with a total cost of P8.47 million, through their pooled efforts. The Mayors of SLAM learned that this strategy was also being used to pursue other related development initiatives in environmental protection and health and had a chance to interact with fellow mayors, LGU staff, barangay officials and residents of PALMA. Through the study visit, the members of SLAM heard from their peers about the importance of barangay development planning, revenue generation strategies and the computerization of the real property tax system, all processes that LGSP II had supported in PALMA and which LGSPA was currently strengthening in SLAM municipalities. The PALMA leadership pledged to assist SLAM in getting established, offered to share their manual of operations and other information and sent their team to help facilitate the setting up of the SLAM alliance and implementing of priority projects.
Concrete Results and Leveraging Resources
Mayor Langkuno and the other three Mayors of SLAM were greatly motivated by the success of what they saw in PALMA. They immediately pursued the formalization of SLAM. A MOA was signed between the four municipalities committing to their participation in SLAM and defining roles and responsibilities. The Provincial Government ofMaguindanao, DILG-ARMM and LGSPA served as witnesses to the MOA. Each mayor agreed to initially provide a monthly contribution of P15,000.00 to a common SLAM fund. This was later raised to P25,000.00 when the Alliance activities began picking up momentum. The fund will be used to support the development projects of the Alliance as well as the Project Management Office operations. Monthly meetings are held with each LGU taking turns hosting the meeting (i.e. cost of venue and food). Mayor Langkuno was selected Chairperson of the SLAM Board and the other members are composed of four Sanggunian Bayan Members, four CSO representatives (i.e. one from each town) and the DILG-ARMM Provincial Director. The town of Datu Paglas was identified as the location of the Project Management Office with Vice Mayor Ammed Paglas designated as the interim Project Manager until a full-time manager is hired. Also in the interim, each LGU assigned one of their staff to report to the PMO on a rotational basis and a full-time technical officer was hired to work with Vice Mayor Paglas. A Technical Working Group composed of the four municipal planning coordinators, municipal engineers and municipal agriculture officers from the four towns serve as the implementing arm of the SLAM Board. With the mentoring support of PALMA, a Strategic Plan has been developed and a manual of operations completed to guide the SLAM Alliance in their operations, systems and procedures including the pooling of human, financial, equipment/material resources, prioritizing activities, external resource generation, and others.
Under the leadership of Mayor Langkuno and with the shared vision, understanding and enthusiasm of the three other mayors, vice mayors, planning officers and senior staff, a number of activities have already been conducted. In response to the immediate need of the municipality of Sultan sa Barongis where twelve barangays had been heavily flooded for several months, a Medical Outreach Relief Operation,Vegetable Seed Distribution and Animal Vaccination campaign were extended to 1300 affected families. Currently underway are preparations for starting up the rehabilitation of a one kilometer farm-to-market road in one of the barangays in the municipality of General S.K. Pendatun in November.
The Medical Outreach Relief Operation, as observed by the affected communities, was a first in Maguindanao and opened the way for SLAM to become better known and establish more linkages for future programs. The Alliance has been identified by the UN World Food Program for its Rice Distribution Project which will benefit poor families in the four municipalities. In addition, with LGSPA assistance in leveraging resources and networking, SLAM has been identified by Zuellig Foundation as an LGU alliance they will partner with to strengthen health services in the area. This will include harnessing the commitment of the LGUs’ leadership to prioritizing health service delivery in their ELAs and to work with Zuellig to develop models that would be able to deliver more effective and efficient services.
In just a short span of time, the SLAM has shown to other ARMM LGUs particularly in Maguindanao and Shariff Kabunsuan, the benefits of working together. There are neighboring towns that have expressed an interest to join the Alliance. The SLAM LGUs believe that they are still in the process of developing and strengthening the Alliance and need to prove that their Alliance will work so for now have decided to work among the four original members. They recognized that much has yet to be done, but with strong camaraderie and motivation, SLAM is on its way to success.
The seeds of good governance reap a good harvest. PALMA, on its sixth year, has undoubtedly benefitted from all the years of hard work. And now it has come alongside SLAM as it embraces the spirit of cooperation and partnership to improve people’s lives through responsive and effective governance.
The Southwestern Ligawasan Alliance of Municipalities (SLAM)
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