ORMOC CITY, Leyte, June 8 (PNA) — For a mother like Helen Bordios, getting free school supplies for her two kids is a treat. As a village health worker who earns PHP3,500 a month which augments her husband’s meager income as a driver, she makes it a point to take advantage of whatever government services they can avail of.
This includes getting school supplies for her children at no cost – a benefit made possible by the school supplies distribution program of this city. The local government unit (LGU) allotted PHP8.5 million from the Special Education Fund to provide supplies to 5,089 pupils from kindergarten to Grade 6 this school opening.
The beneficiaries are students of the 83 elementary schools throughout the six districts of the Education Department’s Ormoc Division. Each pupil receives a backpack containing six notebooks, two pad papers, two pencils and a box of crayons. The program aims to ease the financial burden of parents in sending their children to school.
Admittedly, providing school supplies is not unique to the Ormoc City government as other LGUs have a similar endeavor. But what makes this particular program unique is that the supplies don’t bear the names and faces of Mayor Edward C. Codilla nor of other local officials and politicians for that matter.
Codilla believes that putting his face on the supplies takes away the sincerity of the program and veers the attention away from its intent of helping pupils with their studies. Doing away with political credit removes the burden of indebtedness normally felt by beneficiaries upon seeing the names or faces of politicians posted on items that they receive.
This low profile style of the mayor is applied to all LGU programs and projects that don’t carry his mug shot. These include tarpaulins on infrastructure projects and activities like village visits as well as franchise stickers which drivers are required to post on their tricycles’ windshields, etc.
True enough, Bordios and other parents feel grateful to the LGU and not to any particular personality for the assistance given to their children. They feel proud of having a local government that looks after their welfare without being compelled to lend their support to anyone come Election Day. (PNA)