League of Provinces of the Philippines Website

Gov. Leo Ocampos

The Province of Misamis Occidental garnered again another National Award – The 2006 Most Outstanding Coop-LGU Partnership Award. Awarded by the Coop-LGU Partnership Awards (CLPA), the Provincial Government of Misamis Occidental and the Pagla-um Multi purpose Cooperative got the highest award as the Most Outstanding Coop-LGU Partnership in the Philippines (Provincial Category) during the Awarding Ceremony conducted last January 23, 2007 at the Senate of the Philippines, Pasay City.

The Paglaum Multi-Purpose Cooperative- Provincial Government partnership made it to the top after it became one of the top five (5) Outstanding Finalist from the 76 entries for provincial level all over the country and came out as the Most Outstanding after the final interview conducted by the CLPA Steering Committee last Monday, January 22, 2007, 3:00-4:00pm, 2nd floor Recto Room, Senate of the Philippines.

All over the years, Pagla-um Cooperative and the Provincial Government have shared a mutual partnership that significantly provided great impact to the people in the local community from micro-financing, environmental concerns, water system development projects and many other community development programs.

Governor Loreto Leo S. Ocampos and Pagla-um General Manager Gadwin Handumon made the representation in the final interview and officially received the awards yesterday.

The criteria of the search is based on how the partnership between the Coop and the Provincial Government promotes local development. This is specifically on how responsibilities resources and activities are shared between parties promoting impact to the local community. Sustainability of the partnership is also one of the criteria. This is on how the partnership has become stronger over time and the mechanism or initiatives have ensured continuation of the activities in the future. Similarly the financial operation of the cooperative is also being looked into.

The 2006 Coop-LGU Partnership Award is jointly sponsored by the Office of Senator Aquilino Q. Pimentel Jr., University of the Philippines- College of Cooperatives, the Cooperative Development Authority (CDA), the Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines (ULAP), Land Bank of the Philippines, Bridge Corn and Globe Telecom.

In an interview at RPN 9 “Inside Insights”, Governor Ocampos made his appeal to all Local Chief Executives from the Governors down to City and Municipal Mayors to extend support to the cooperatives. In a similar way, Ocampos also extended his appeal to the cooperatives to reach out to the Local Government Units in order to come up with a healthy partnership which is very vital towards national development.