01/26/15—Mayor Eldwin Alibutdan of Ipil, Zamboanga Sibugay was named the BayanI Ka! National Awardee for Improved Local Governance last January 23, 2015 at Asian Institute of Management in Makati City.

Alibutdan was among of the five awardees from the different parts of the country to win in the individual category in Kalahi-CIDSS BayanI Ka Awards for successfully implementing the program in their respective communities.

Alibutdan is considered to be one of the CDD (Community Driven Development) champions in Region IX. He has been vocal about his aspiration of addressing the needs of his constituents who motivated him to realize the implementation of Kalahi-CIDSS in their locality. Aside from this, he is also passionate about promoting CDD as one of the best strategies to fight against corruption.

 “It is truly a pleasure on my part to receive this award from DSWD. I cannot even articulate how thankful I am to the program for the effort of recognizing their stakeholders. Surely, this will drive me, us, the Local Government Unit of Ipil to perform our duties better in empowering the poor and disadvantaged and I hope that I will serve as an inspiration to my fellow mayors, colleagues and all the leaders in Region IX to support and adopt CDD as an efficient poverty reduction strategy.” says Alibutdan in a statement.

Region IX also bagged the BayanI Ka Best Youth Volunteer award and was given to Ms. Loreza Dee Tomial of Kabasalan, Zamboanga Sibugay. Tomial was mthe Project Preparation Team member and Monitopring and Inspection Team chairperson in the implementation of Kalahi-CIDSS in Barangay Sanghanan, Kabasalan. Loreza believes that part of the development process of the community is the need to capacitate the community members, including the youth.

The ceremony was attended by DSWD international development partners and the agency’s members of the executive committee headed by Sec. Corazon “Dinky” Soliman who gave a very inspiring message to the awardees.

 “We are very humbled by the partnership that you have offered because this partnership brought to life what democracy and development mean…your service to the nation is very much valued…This recognition may not be enough to measure the effort that all of you have given, whatever development is seen and felt in your areas is truly a reality.” says Soliman during her opening message.

The BayanI Ka! Awarding organized by the Department of Social Welfare and Development intends to acknowledge the hard work being put by the local, everyday heroes who put their own communities (“bayan”) before their own selves (“I”) through their enhanced participation in community development. ###