San Jose dB prepares ELA 2013-16

Local elected officials, department heads and non-government organizations came together under the tutelage of the Department of Interior and Local Government to come up with a Capacity Development Plan and Executive Legislative Agenda on October 16-18, 2013 at the Adelaide Tourist Inn.

Mayor Rony Molina on his opening message.

Mr. Darcy Bungay discussing the output of the economic sector on issues relevant to the group.

Engr. Jose Magbanua discussing the issues relevant to the physical infrastructure group.

Vice Mayor Elmer Untaran giving a closing message.

According to this document, the ELA is a planning document, covering a three-year period corresponding to the term of localelective officials that is mutually developed and agreed upon by both the executive and legislative departments of an LGU. It is an integrated plan that contains the major development thrusts and priorities of both the executive and legislative branches towards a common vision for the locality and an instrument that will prioritize responses to
multi-stakeholder needs, e.g., programs, projects, activities, legislations and capacity development programs, and put into action local development plans.

The people from the  executive and legislative branches.

On the end of the three day seminar-workshop, the participants signed a pledge of commitment towards the completion of the ELA document and the ELA implementation.

Pledge of commitment.

Pledge of commitment.

TOT on participatory risk assessment held

Fifteen selected personnel of the local government unit attended the trainors training on participatory risk assessment.

The training is part of the special project - Disaster Risk Reduction and Management-Capacity Enhancement Program (DRRM-CEP) of the Office of Civil Defense VI.

TOT participant sharing their vision of a disaster resilient community.

Another participant sharing their group's vision of a disaster resilient community.

After a two-day lecture and workshop, the trainees were sent on a fieldwork at Brgy. Catungan-Bugarot to demonstrate competencies learned from the training.

Participatory risk assessment fieldwork in Brgy. Bugarot.

Punong Barangay Pacheco presents result of institutional analysis Venn Diagram workshop to his constituents.

San Jose dB to push for gender responsive land administration and management

San Jose de Buenavista was chosen as one of the two pilot local government unit in the Philippines to implement the Strengthening Capacities for Gender Responsive Land Administration and Management, Land Tenure Improvement and Tax Administration Project.

In line with the project, a training workshop on integrating gender and development (GAD) in land administration and management (LAM) was conducted.

A gender assessment of the existing land administration policies, systems and procedures, and the Comprehensive Land Use Plan of San Jose de Buenavista was conducted which resulted to the development of short-term action plan for integrating gender in land administration and management.

The training-workshop was attended by key land administration personnel of the LGU (such as the Municipal Planning and Development Coordinator, Municipal Assessor, Municipal Treasurer, Municipal Environment and ) and national government agencies (Department of Agrarian Reform and Department of Environment and Natural Resources), GAD focal person of the LGU and NGAs, and representatives of relevant organizations.

Partners from the provincial government (Provincial Assessor's Office, Provincial Planning and Development Office) also attended the training.

The GAD project is a grant funded by the Asian Development Bank and hopes to promote equal rights of women and men to access, use and own land.

The other pilot LGU is Bayawan City, Negros Oriental.

University planning students on DRRM learning visit in San Jose dB

Students of Diploma in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of the Philippine in the Visayas came to San Jose de Buenavista to learn about disaster risk reduction and management best practices of the town.


After the sharing of best practices, the group visited the town's Farmville in Brgy. San Pedro, Antique Atelier Display Center in Tradetown, Funda-Dalipe and Coastal Marine Resource Gallery in Brgy. Funda-Dalipe.

DOt-trained site guide Ms. Lucia Bantolo introducing Farmville to DUPR students on tour.

DOT-trained site guide Mr. Godhel Basanes introducing the CRM Gallery to DURP students on tour.

Baby green sea turtles released back to sea

 Baby green sea turtles were released backed to the sea in San Jose de Buenavista.

The first batch of was released on the evening of September 19 and another batch of more or less 37 green sea turtles was released evening of September 23 at the Marine Protected Area, Brgy. Funda-Dalipe of the town.

The first batch of green sea turtles was born in Brgy. Durog sometime July of this year.  Barangay officials notified the Local Environment and Natural Resources Officer Cornelius Yanga about the event. In cooperation with the municipal government, the barangay made sure that the eggs survived until they hatched.

On September 18, 68 hatchlings were removed from their nest in Brgy. Durog and were taken to the MPA and were released.

The second batch was from Funda-Dalipe where a green sea turtle laid its egg under a house also sometime in July.






Municipal Environment Code has declared the shores of Madrangca up to Durog as turtle sanctuary.

Pastrana Leyte in San Jose on DRRM learning visit

Mayor Rony Molina of San Jose de Buenvista, Antique with Mayor Ernesto Martillo of Pastrana, Leyte.

Pastrana, Leyte local government unit visited San Jose de Buenvista, Antique to learn about the disaster risk reduction and management programs and best practices of the town this September 18.

Pastrana, Leyte on MDRRMC study tour.

The LGU contingent is composed of elected officials, department heads, Municipal DRRM Office staff and personnel.

Engr. Alex Crespo presenting DRRM programs of San Jose de Buenavista.

Leading the group on visit is Hon. Mayor Ernesto Martillo.

Day care parents recycling contest now on its 2nd year

Parents of children of Barangay 1 Day Care Center once again competed in a Recycling Contest to mark the Center’s 23rd Anniversary.

Left: A mother presenting a chime-like decore from rotating fan blade with empty bullet casings. Top-right: Flower from plastic drinking straw sit side by side with an origami flower from recycled paper. Bottom-right: A turtle coin bank from coconut shell.

Above: Judges going over a group entry. Below-left: Tin can robot with spoon and fork for limbs.  Below-right: plastic roses from melted plastic.

Above: Recycling contest entries on display during Barangay 1 Day Care Center 23rd Anniversary celebration. Bottom-left: Drinking straw weaved into a bag. Bottom-right: Origami decorative basket from recycled paper.

The contest is the brainchild of the Day Care Center teacher Ms. Beth Gernade and aims to promote solid waste management among the Day Care Center parents.

Just like last year, the parents were divided into groups and tasked to recycle items found in their household.

Group entries were judged according to originality (40%), craftmanship (30%), and creativity and uniqueness (30%).


“Craftmanship improved this year and the competition was stiff,” said Ms. Fe Tacogdoy, town's Tourism Officer and this year’s contest chief judge.

“We have seen new items this year. There was an electric fan rotating blade turned into a chime-like decoration using empty bullet casings and there is this robot-like decoration made from tin can,” she added.

This year’s output ranged from household decorations from paper or plastic straw, desk organizers from plastic bottles or tin caps, rags from recycled cloth, slippers and bags.

San Jose de Buenavista Recently Received Awards

San Jose de Buenvista recently received the following awards:

1. Apolinario Mabini 2013 Local Government Unity of the Year Award for rendering exceptional services to a significant number of citizens with disabilities within its jurisdiction in the last two years.

2. Sandugo Award from Red Cross (for efforts on voluntary blood donation).

3. Best Police Station (Municipal Category)

San Jose dB, DOT train site guides for town's main attractions

The local government of San Jose de Buenavista in partnership with the Department of Tourism (DOT) conducted a tourist reception and basic tour guiding techniques seminar.

According to DOT, The seminar was designed to develop and improve the performance of front-liners in rendering first rate professional service in the tourism industry.

Moreover, the LGU hopes to improve the service in its main tourist attractions - Farmville and the Marine Protected Area especially the Coastal Resource Management (CRM) Mini Galley.

Farmville is an LGU-owned demo farm for integrated organic farming, which offers tour, lectures and training on organic farming techniques.

The CRM Mini Galley offers discovery tour of the marine ecosystem and environmental protection and conservation while the Marine Protected Area is open for snorkeling activities thru the CRM Mini Galley.

Participants from allied services such as accommodation establishments and souvenir/ craft shop also attended the training.

On the last day of the training, a mock tour was conducted to assess the compentency of the participants.

Mayor Rony Molina hopes to conduct tourist reception training to tricycle and jeepney drivers in the Municipality. 

San Jose dB to receive eHealth tablets

San Jose de Buenavista has been chosen to be one of the recipients of the eHealth TABLET (Technology Assisted Boards for LGU Efficiency and Transparency) in Western Visayas.

The  provision of tablets is a component of the "Developing eHealth TABLET Prototype: A Bottom Up Approach to the Development of an Electronic-based Health Information System Integration Application" which aims to design and develop a mobile patient record system (a software application) with dashboard output and a doctor-mayor communication system.

Hoping to provide an innovative solution to the Philippine's health information management problem and to improve the health decision-making process of local government units, the Philippines Council for Health Research and Development (PCHRD) of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), Institute of Philippine Culture (IPC), and Ateneo Java Wireless Competence Center (AJWCC) of the Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU) partnered with and the League of the Municipalities of the Philippines (LMP) to select 12 pilot sites across the country.

A signing of Memorandum of Agreement and turn over ceremony will be held on August 23, 2013 at the Municipal Hall.

San Jose MDRRC holds 2nd rescue olympics

Clustered barangay-based emergency responders were pitted against each other on Chariot and Tripod Race, Vehicular Accident Extrication, Rescue Swimming, Rescue Tube Throwing and Relay, Underwater Knot Tying, Basic Life Support and Basic Fire Fighting during the San Jose de Buenavista Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (MDRRMC) 2nd Rescue Olympics.

Zone 1 (barangays Maybato North, Maybato Sur and Bariri) was Best in Chariot and Tripod Race and Best in Rescue Swimming; Zone 3 (Brgy. 2 and Brgy. 5) was Best in Basic Life Support; Zone 4 (Brgy. 4, Malaiba and San Angel) was Best in Basic Fire Fighting; Zone 5 (Brgy. 1, Bugarot, Cansadan Tubudan and Inabasan) was Best in Rescue Tube Throwing and Relay; Zone 2 (Badiang, San Fernando and Supa) was Best in Underwater Knot Tying; and Zone 8 (Atabay, Badiang and Funda-Dalipe) was Best in Vehicular Accident Extrication.

Zone 1 emerged as this year’s overall champion and Zone 3 and 4 were runner-ups.

Aside from certificates of recognition, the winning barangays also received personal protective equipment – hard hats and rain coats, as prizes, while other participating barangays shall receive LED battery-operated, waterproof flashlights.


The Rescue Olympics serves as a monitoring tool to check whether barangay-based emergency responders maintains the knowledge and skills taught by the Municipal DRRM personnel in their respective barangay trainings.

This year, the barangays were clustered to encourage cooperation and teamwork among neighboring barangays.

San Jose dB LGU celebrates 115th independece day

San Jose excellent in ARTA compliance

The Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) rated the Anti-Red Tape Act (ARTA) initiatives of San Jose de Buenavista Excellent.

According to the ARTA Report Card DILG furnished the LGU, San Jose de Buenavista scored 94.15% with an equivalent descriptive rating of Excellent, for the survey period of October 3-5, 2012.

To track the compliance of local government units to RA 9485 or the Anti Red Tape Act of 2007, the Civil service Commission developed the ARTA Report Card Survey and the DILG conducted the assessment.

San Jose de Buenavista was assessed on the areas of (1) Compliance with ARTA Provisions, (2) Frontline Service Provider, (3) Service Quality, (4) Physical Working Condition, and (5) Overall Satisfaction.

Specifically, Compliance with ARTA Provisions assessed details on Citizen’s Charter, Anti-Fixer Campaign, ID/Nameplates, No Hidden Costs, Public Assistance/ Complaints Desk, and No Lunch Break; while Physical Working Condition covers Physical Set-up/ Layout and Basic Facilities.

The LGU score was based on questionnaire and inspection checklist. Questionnaire comprised 80% of the total score while 20% was from the checklist. 

Republic Act 948 promotes transparency, integrity, and accountability in government transactions.

MPA Center: There's something new this summer

Mayor Molina to speak on National DRRM Summit for LCEs

Mayor Rony L. Molina of San Jose de Buenvista, Antique will share the town’s best practices on disaster risk reduction and management in national summit for local chief executives.

The event was organized in response to the President's directive to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) that calls for the strengthening of LCE roles and responsibilities in DRRM for effective and efficient delivery of government services.

According to the NDRRMC Executive Director Eduardo del Rosario, the President as well as other high ranking government officials are expected to grace this event along with Chairs and Vice-Chairs of Regional DRRM Councils (RDRRMCs), provincial, city and municipal Chief Executives, NDRRMC member agencies and directors of National Government Agencies (NGAs), and members of the Congress, the academe, religious sector, civil society organizations and the UN Humanitarian Country Team.

The activity is divided into two events – a four-day Pre-Summit on March 12-15, and the National Summit on March 20.

Mayor Molina will speak in both occasions to discuss the various disaster risk reduction and management initiatives in San Jose according to the mandates of Republic Act 10121 or the DRRM Act; showcase the best practices of San Jose in DRRM; and identify pathways to carry local safety and resiliency agenda forward.

San Jose de Buenvista was a National Gawad Kalasag Best Municipal DRRM Council, for first to third class municipality category, from 2010-2012 and is now a Gawad Kalasag Hall of Famer.

Other invited speaker from Western Visayas is Mayor Christine Garin of Guimbal, Iloilo.

Farmville hosts training on food processing for women

San Jose LGU's Farmville hosted a three-day training on food processing and fishery product development.

The training was organized by the Municipal Agriculture Office of San Jose de Buenavista,  under the helm of OIC-Municipal Agriculture Officer Florante Q. Moscoso, in partnership with the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources - Regional Fisheries Training Center.

Participants of the training were from barangays San Pedro and Mojon. They were women who are already into cooking and food processing and were identified through their punong barangays.

San Pedro and Mojon were chosen for there is no existing Rural Improvement Club (RIC) organized in the area.

The technology transfer training aims to increase productivity of the agri-fishery sector and encourage self-sustained growth. At the same time, aims to organize the women into an RIC.

Aside from learning different methods and principles of preservation and processing of various farm products, the participants were taught gender and development concepts and issues and were introduced to basic entrepreneurship.

Farmville is a one-hectare demo farm of the municipal government, located in Sitio Lugutan of San Pedro, using the Integrated Framing Approach and focused on organic farming. It is a venue for learning and center of technology transfer for farmers and students.

San Jose dB to open emeregency medical service this 2013

Emergency medical training.

The Municipality of San Jose de Buenavista will open a 24/7 emergency medical service (EMS) under the Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office this first quarter of 2013.

One of the top hazards in San Jose de Buenavista is vehicular accidents.

This initiative was planned to respond to this perennial incident which claims many lives.

Emergency medical service unit aims to provide treatment to those in need of urgent medical care and/or arranging for timely transport of patients to the next point of definitive care such as the rural health center or the hospital.

An EMS ambulance was purchased for this purpose and a team of healthcare providers are trained for this purpose.

A 24/7 hotline will be introduced to the public once equipment and manpower requirements are completed.

The 24/7 EMS is an addition to the 24/7 birthing services of the LGU.

Poverty reduction team meet for bottom-up budgeting

San Jose de Buenavista Municipal Poverty Reduction Team (MPRAT) held an bottom-up budgeting workshop.

Top-left: MPRAT Chair Mayor Rony Molina giving a message on poverty alleviation.  Bottom-left: MLGOO Janeth Norella facilitating the activity. Right: MPRAT shortlisting projects for San Jose de Buenavista.

The MPRAT, organized through local Executive Order No. 001, series of 2013, is composed of heads of the LGU offices and representatives from civil society organizations. It is chaired by the local chief executive and co-chaired by a civil society organization representative chosen by the CSOs in an assembly.


During the one-day workshop, the team have identified priority poverty reduction projects.

Projects identified includes capacity and skills enhancement and business start-up for the youth, women, senior citizens and persons with disability.

Provision of pre and post harvest facilities for farmers, and marine resource conservation and protection and support services for fisherfolks were also in the identified priority programs.

Buttom-up budgeting is an approach to budget preparation that takes into consideration the development needs of the cities and municipalities identified in their respective local poverty reduction plans formulated in strong participation of the basic sector organizations and other civil society organizations.

These are activity is part of the national government's effort to harmonize, coordinate and complement  the programs and projects of departments and other government instrumentalities to attain the national development goals and objectives.

Farm mechanization to boost San Jose dB agri productivity

Agrricultural Technicians, OIC Municipal Agriculturist Florante Moscoso, Mayor Rony Molina with the leaders of the beneficiary farmers associations.

Two farmers' organization in the Municipality of San Jose de Buenavista received facilities for farm mechanization to boost rice production.

Pantao Farmers Association received a water pump and engine while Division A Irrigators Association received a rice drum seeder in a simple turn over ceremony in front of the town's hall.

These machines were issued as part of the Farm Mechanization Program (FMP) of the Department of Agriculture in partnership with the Municipal Agriculture Office.

Under the program, qualified farmers groups and cooperatives, and irrigators’ associations, and local government units receive equipment and machines under a fund counterparting agreement.

DA covers 85% of the cost of the farm machine while the recipient, for the case of San Jose is through the LGU, pays the remaining 15%. 

The program aims to increase the present farm mechanization level of the Philippines and facilitate the increase of agricultural productivity in the country.

Festival celebrations boost San Jose dB tourism arrivals

San Jose de Buenavista has observed significant increase in tourist arrival during months with festivals held in the Municipality in 2012.

Statistics report showed significant increase in the month of November and December when Binirayan Festival - provincial festival, was celebrated.

December, 2012 was quite exceptional with  arrival statistics of more than double than that of the same period in 2011.

In 2011, an unexpected spike in tourism arrival was recorded on the month of February when the 25th death anniversary of  the late governor Evelio B. Javier was celebrated. 

Tourism statistics report is gathered from registered accommodation establishments in the Municipality.

Tribu Mandaragat is Kasadyahan 2013 4th Runner-Up

Tribu Mandaragat of San Jose de Buenavista wass awarded as 4th Runner-Up in the recently held Kasadyahan Region Cultural Competition.

Kasadyahan aims to showcase and celebrate the cultural heritage of participating local government units thru a street dance drama.  The event was an opportunity to showcase the cultural heritage of the Province of Antique represented by San Jose de Buenavista and a platform to promote San Jose de Buenavista as a tourist destination.

Tribu Mandaragat was composed of students from Antique National School.

Kasadyahan Cultural Dance Results:

Major Award:
Champion - Salakayan – Miagao, Iloilo
1st runner-up - Tribu Kaing – Leon, Iloilo
2nd runner-up - Tribu Bayluhay – San Joaquin, Iloilo
3rd runner-up - Tribu Pagdayaw – Dumarao, Capiz
4th runner-up - Tribu Mandaragat – San Jose de Buenavista, Antique

Special Award:
Best Choreography -Salakayan – Miagao, Iloilo
Best Choreographer -Salakayan – Miagao, Iloilo
Best Music - Tribu Kaing – Leon, Iloilo
Best Musical Director -Tribu Kaing – Leon, Iloilo
Best in Costume - Tribu Kaing – Leon, Iloilo
Best Performance - Salakayan – Miagao, Iloilo
Best in Street Dance - Salakayan – Miagao, Iloilo


 *Kodus to Antique National School!