Community Strength in Bohol

By Cerge M. Remonde

ON 30 June 2001, Governor Erico B. Aumentado started out on the first term of his stewardship of Bohol. Located in Central Philippines, the province has a population of 1.2 million, with one city, 47 municipalities and 1,109 barangays.

At that time, Bohol was ranked 16th of the country's 20 poorest provinces, and while it was host to the famous tarsiers and the Chocolate Hills, poverty incidence was at a dismal 53.6%.

Already a veteran of Congress and various other local positions, at that time, the task ahead for Governor Aumentado was nonetheless daunting and formidable. Especially so with a festering leftist insurgency that fed and thrived on a populace plagued by poverty.

Roughly 30 percent of Bohol's 1,109 barangays, in the words of Gov. Aumentado, "were in various stages of insurgency: Influenced, infiltrated or threatened. There were also 283 armed men in four fronts in the province, making Bohol a hotbed of insurgency in Central and Eastern Visayas."

It was the consensus of the Bohol leaders from the start, he explained, that military intervention alone would not solve the communist insurgency. A poverty reduction program focused on attaining peace and security in the province was what was needed. And that was what he gave Bohol.

While continuing the Let's Help Bohol program, a livestock dispersal program instituted by his predecessor, he immediately created the Bohol Poverty Reduction Management Office. And in succession, he established the Bohol Employment and Placement Office which deployed a total of 5,827 foreign, domestic as well as student workers. The Bohol Tourism Office, to promote the natural attractions of a province populated by a people who are by nature warm and hospitable, was also created. Other programs, such as the Livelihood Integrated for Food and Family Enhancement, an extension of Let's Help Bohol; KALAHICIDSS; Agrarian Reform Community Development, Phase 2; Belgian Integrated Agrarian Reform Support Program; and the Philippines-Australia Community Approach Program, among others, helped jumpstart Bohol out of the poorest 20 provinces.

While work on grooming Bohol for the turn around started from Day One, it did not come until much later.

Friday the 13th in 2004, a day of bad portents to many, would actually be the big turning point for Bohol's anti-insurgency campaign. The day the Governor miraculously escaped a well-planned ambush, the gentle and peace-loving Boholanos took it upon themselves to rid their province of the red scourge.