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BJSS model reaps “Galing Pook” Award for Cebu City
(Life at the grassroots)
(taken from the Philippine Daily Inquirer)
February 22, 2008

The Gantimpalang Panglingkod Pook (Local Service Awards), also known as the “Galing Pook” Awards, recognizes outstanding local governance projects since its inception in 1993.  The recent ten winners of the Outstanding Local Governance Program Award show innovative or highly effective public service programs at work.  The Galing Pook seal of approval means that these programs have not only been successful in their locality; they are also eminently applicable to other localities too (“replicability” is one criterion in the rigorous, multi-stage screening). 

The winning programs are success stories in their own right, of course, but they are also democratic narratives – they trace the dynamic relationship between participation and governance, they describe the building of stronger, more responsive communities. 

The high rate of success of Cebu City’s barangay justice system, for instance, shows us the virtue, the benefits of targeted training.  Alternative dispute resolution mechanisms do not only declog the judiciary’s dockets, they also allow complainants to save (in the case of Cebu City) as much as Php10,000 in legal fees.  That some 60 percent of cases lodged with the city’s barangay justice system are resolved out of court is, due in large part to the city’s  decision to invest heavily in conflict-resolution training.  Today, some 962 trained village mediators help move the wheels of justice just a little bit faster.

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