File photo of one of the winners of the 2020 Galing Pook Awards Municipality of Del Carmen, Surigao del Norte for its “Siargao It Up! Mangrove Management and Social Tourism Program.”
SM Prime Holdings recently partnered with the Galing Pook Foundation (GPF) and the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG)-Local Government Academy (LGA) in support of the Galing Pook Awards, as part of the company’s contributions to promoting and achieving a more sustainable and disaster-resilient Philippines.
Through the said public-private partnership, SM Prime will provide financial and other forms of support to the Galing Pook Awards, an annual ceremony established in 1993 that recognizes provincial, city and municipal governments as well as barangays in the country chosen for their exemplary governance, innovation, sustainability, disaster risk reduction and resilience initiatives that have made a lasting positive impact on the community.
SM Prime is one of the country’s leading advocates from the private sector, that promotes and espouses disaster risk reduction and resilience for its businesses, communities and employees. This includes its membership to ARISE Philippines, a network of companies and private sector institutions, with voluntary commitments to the implementation of initiatives in support of the 2015 Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR) which aims to achieve the substantial reduction of disaster risk and losses in lives, livelihoods and health and in the economic, physical, social, cultural and environmental assets of persons, businesses, communities and countries.
Speaking on the partnership of SM Prime with GPF and DILG, ARISE Philippines Co- Chair Mr. Hans T. Sy, underscored the importance of the private and public sectors working together to achieve common goals towards disaster resilience and sustainability more effectively. GPF Chair and former DILG Secretary Mel Sarmiento thanked SM Prime for its support and urged local government units (LGUs) to join the Galing Pook Awards as a way of showcasing Filipino excellence when it comes to good governance as well as developmental and resilience related issues.
“The Philippines is one of the most disaster-vulnerable countries in the world, so it is our collective responsibility as Filipinos to work together in continuously building our resiliency capabilities and empowering local communities. We are very happy to support the efforts of the Galing Pook Foundation, which calls for cities and municipalities to take on the challenge of good governance, sustainability and resilience within its communities,” said SM’s Hans Sy.
“I encourage LGUs to take part in the Galing Pook Awards, as doing so will not only show the world what we can do when it comes to sustainability and disaster resiliency, but it will also contribute to the formulation of best practices that other LGUs can apply in their own communities. This is our way of encouraging our Local Chief Executives, as well as engaging our community members, to do their part in making their cities and municipalities, sustainable and resilient to disasters,” Sarmiento said.
Previous winners include the Municipality of San Luis, Aurora for its “Luntiang Pamayanan ng San Luis” initiative; the Municipality of Palompon, Leyte for its “Integrated Community-Based Eco-Tourism and Coastal Research Management” initiative; and the Municipality of Del Carmen, Surigao del Norte for its “Siargao It Up! Mangrove Management and Social Tourism Program,” to name a few.
To learn more about the Galing Pook Awards, including how to join, visit http://galingpook.org. Winners will receive a cash award from DILG -LGA and will become part of a circle of change makers who have created innovative solutions to some of the biggest climate-related problems in their communities, in turn creating legacies cementing their contributions to the global climate movement.