Argao at 400

Although still a second class municipality in the province of Cebu, Argao leads other local governments in implementing the full computerization of business processes.

Argao Mayor Edsel Galeos said that with the system in place, he only has to open his computer after 5 p.m. and he would already know how much the town has spent and how much money it has left. Before, getting these figures would take three months at the least.

Some 300 mayors had in fact visited Argao, a town some 60 kilometers away from Cebu City, earlier this year to learn from its example.

Galeos views the computerization project as a big accomplishment of his administration, and that a bigger purpose to it is to promote transparency in all local government transactions.

The software for connecting all town offices and putting online all business transactions is given free by the National Computer Center and Argao only had to make use of it, added Galeos. He said they are more than willing to share their experience with the system with other local governments.

He credits his IT consultant Querubin L. Momongan for new technology innovations in the town, including making possible the proposal of tourism officer Alex Gonzales for a wireless fidelity (wi-fi) zone in the town square.

Momongan said they are taking the connectivity thing to a new level with their local broadband network (LBN) project, described by the mayor as similar to the NBN concept but without the ZTE. Galeos was referring to the scandal-tainted national broadband project of the national government with Chinese firm ZTE.

The NBN project will make use of the telecommunications technology WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) to provide Internet access to all villages, schools, and homes in Argao.

Momongan said it would cost the town less than 500,000 pesos to acquire radio antennas to be placed in the town center, Mount Binalabag, and one other in Argao’s tallest mountain. The town is currently choosing from at least three possible suppliers-among them Nozomi and PLDT-of the antennas.

All of Argao’s 45 barangays will have receivers, worth 30,000 pesos each and which they will shoulder, to receive the signal from the radio antennas.

Another purpose of the LBN would be to decentralize treasury operations to all the barangays, added Momongan.

All residents need to do would be to go to the barangay centers where computers connected to the town’s treasury database will pull out their records and apprise them of their tax obligations.

Momongan said the system would be a big help to farmers who pay fares of not less than 100 pesos to go down from the mountain and pay taxes of only 15 to 60 pesos at the municipal hall.

He is hopeful that they would have the LBN project in place within two months.

Argao’s IT consultant said the possibilities are endless with the LBN project: the mayor can call the barangay chairs at any time of the day; have videoconferencing with them through Skype; the barangays can use it during emergencies.

Momongan added they are also looking at how easy tabulating the results of the elections would be with this system.

“In less than 30 minutes, we will know the results,” he added.

Galeos said an added bonus to the LBN project is it is now possible for them to put security cameras in strategic areas-like the plaza, market, and street-and beam the feed live over the Internet.

The mayor, even when he travels abroad, can see his town from wherever he is, explained Momongan, and so could other Argawanons in various parts of the world.

The computerization and connectivity projects are not just the only things that have the town excited.

Mayor Galeos said a seismic survey has shown there could be gas or oil deposits off the town’s shore.

The mayor said his vision for Argao to become a city within 10 to 15 years would be shortened, if oil or gas were to be discovered in the town.

“It is seven kilometers away from the mayor’s table,” Galeos said when asked where the exploration for oil or gas would take place.

As to adverse environment effects of the exploration, Galeos said he is tasking the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to ensure this is lessened.

Another big project currently being implemented in the town is the construction of the Diosdado Macapagal Sports and Cultural Center.

Galeos said Secretary Cerge Remonde gave them P20 million for the project, and that work is being done on the center for 24 hours a day so it could be completed by September when Argao celebrates 400 years of township.

The mayor said the town is doing the construction of the center, with free help provided by his construction company, to save on cost.

As a civil engineer and real estate developer, Galeos said he sees the benefit of transferring City Hall to a 1-hectare land near the new market area and turning the place into a one-stop government center. He said the market will be transferred and a parallel highway created to introduce developments to sleepy Talaytay and neighboring villages.

This move, which is a long-term plan of the mayor for Argao, will decongest the walled pueblo, which will be turned into a cultural and heritage area.

Galeos is also embarking on what he calls the “mother of all livelihood” that includes turning the 2.1-kilometer stretch called Argao Beach Club into a tourist destination. The mayor though said all contentious issues that hound ownership of the beach will have to be ironed out first before the structures there could be demolished and innovations like a yacht club made possible.

While he is one believer in new technology and computers, Galeos nevertheless is not ignoring the development of agriculture in his town considering that many of his constituents are farmers.

Since the former mayor has opened a lot of farm-to-market roads in mountain villages, Galeos said it falls to him to ensure their upkeep. Galeos said as another help to the farmers, the town is subsidizing the cost of fertilizers.

The mayor said he has tapped the more than 40 poultry growers in the town to give him chicken droppings that he could give to the farmers as fertilizers. The town gets 8,000 bags of droppings from the growers each year. With his help to them, he said in jest, the farmers would have no choice but to become rich.

For a first-term mayor who has ran the town like a businessman, Galeos’s first few months in office has not been without challenges.

He said the hardest resistance had come from his department heads, who had been so inured to the old ways it was difficult for them to change.

Galeos said it was only a few months ago when they protested his running of the town like a corporation and treating them like the board of directors.

He was glad that they recently understood and accepted his management style.

Winning by a huge margin of 25,000 votes in the 2007 elections that started his first term in office, Galeos said his one source of happiness is the continuing respect and cooperation shown by his constituents.

While there are those who question his management style, Galeos said they remained a miniscule 1 percent of the townspeople. He was referring to a survey conducted by on-the-job trainees in the town that showed a minimal group not liking how he runs the town.

His life now is a far cry from that in 2005 when he was hit by a debilitating illness that started his road to service.

Galeos said he considers this life a second chance and, with prayers, intends to make the most of it. (Marlen D. Limpag)