By Cherry Mae D. Palicte
TAGUM CITY, Jan. 20 (PNA) — This city presented its major programs, which exemplifies good and participatory governance, to the international academic audience last January 11-14 at Khon Kaen University in Thailand.
The event was jointly funded by the University of Hawaii, the University of Khon Kaen and the International Association of Local Governments (IALG), the IALG Best Practices Case Study Writing Workshop.
Prior to this, the city government here joined the IALG-sponsored International Case Study Competition where two of its entries—the Night Market of Tagum and its Literacy Programs—were shortlisted, but only the night market program made it to the cut.
Mayor Allan Rellon, who arrived on Monday from Thailand, discussed the case study entitled “Dynamism of Tagum City Night Market as Fueled by Good Governance and Active Citizens’ Participation” to a set of participants from five ASEAN nations namely Myanmar, Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand, and other participants from the Philippines.
The participants represented the NGOs, the Academe, the Local Government Unit, the LGU Bureaucracy and the Civil Society of all five countries.
Rellon said he was able to discuss with his fellow participants facts relating to the Night Market as having been established only as a means of relocating the ambulant and/or illegal vendors from the National Highway as well as from other city and barangay streets and have them situated in a common place.
Discussions on the problems and resistance which the city government had been faced with during the implementation of the program, as well as the approaches and measures undertaken by the city government that made the vendors support the Night Market Program were also tackled.
The Case Study, when finalized and submitted in a textbook form, will be published by the University of Hawaii, USA within this year.
“I feel really proud and fulfilled (considering) all the hardships. For (the City of Tagum) being recognized, not only in the country, but also internationally, particularly ASEAN countries,” Rellon said. (PNA)