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BAGUIO CITY: British Ambassador to the Philippines Peter Beckingham
lauded the efforts of a nongovernment organization to help eradicate
graft in the Cordilleras, an indication of a strong partnership
between the private sector and the government.
Beckingham congratulated the Concerned Citizens
of Abra for Good Governance, headed by executive director Pura
Sumangil for forming the Indigenous Peoples Organizations in the
Cordilleras and Provincial Agrarian Reform Coordinating Committees
as community-based monitoring bodies.
Beckingham said that the United Kingdom shares
the vision of the Cordilleras in ensuring transparency and
eliminating corruption in the government.
He was welcomed by Governors Maximo Dalog of
Mountain Province and Nestor Fongwan of Benguet, city mayor Reinaldo
Bautista Jr., Department of Agrarian Reform director Renato Navalta
and members of the University of Baguio cultural dance troupe.
The objective of the project is to achieve
higher standards of economic governance with focus on anticorruption
and transparency.
The project also aims to ease poverty and
promote he Millennium Development Goals with focus on the poorest
regions.
Sumangil said that the project seeks to empower
of agrarian beneficiaries and indigenous peoples.
Dalog, said in an interview that the launching
of the project is a welcome development for the Cordillera Regional
Development Council because antipoverty alleviation is one of the
main goals of the council.
Beckingham said that his country owes the
Philippines since more than 2,000 Filipinos are working in hospitals
and information technology firms in the UK.
--Harley Palangchao
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