The Philippine Center for Civic Education and Democracy (PCCED) has been working in Sorsogon Province since 2005 that was made possible by the cooperation of the Sorsoganons and strong support from the Sorsogon Provincial Government and the City Government of Sorsogon, under the helm of then-Mayor and, later, Governor Sally A. Lee.  PCCED’s activities in Sorsogon in the early stages of its work were mainly in the area of formal education with the Civic Education Training Seminars (CETS) and its public policy program for the youth.  But to extend its coverage in the community, PCCED launched two programs aimed at promoting civics and citizenship through good governance and community-building that can be found in the programs Participatory Budgeting (PB) and Barangay Rule of Law Seminars (BRLS).

 

To continue the Organization’s long-term work in the locale, the PB and BRLS programs were initiated in December 2009 under the project “Promoting Democratic Values in the Barangays of Sorsogon”.  PB is a program patterned after Brazil’s model of people engagement and participation in the identification of projects in the public budget.  Through PB, people are not only capacitated with the technical skills to enable them to participate in government, but it is also the program’s objective to increase their awareness of the avenues where public participation can happen by understanding legal provisions of the Local Government Code for citizen involvement in planning for the budget.  A strong link between civil society and the local government is also established wherein constant consultation and communication between citizens and local officials is maintained.  In Sorsogon, PB is implemented in the following areas:

 

1. Barangay Sirangan, Sorsogon City
2. Barangay Zone 7, Municipality of Bulan
3. Barangay Del Pilar, Municipality of Bulan
4. Municipality of Gubat
5. Municipality of Irosin
6. Municipality of Bulusan

 

BRLS is a program that seeks to improve the administration of the Katarungang Pambarangay system.  This is achieved by providing the relevant technical and ethical knowledge that Lupon Members and other persons pertinent to the administration of the barangay justice system. The topics include identifying the composition and cases covered by the Katarungang Pambarangay; Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration in the Barangay and their necessary skills/ techniques;  The Common Good; Solidarity in Promoting Justice; among others.

 

This project is supported by the Agencia Espanola de Cooperacion Internacional para el Desarrollo (AECID), the Spanish Government’s office for international cooperation and development, and is implemented in cooperation with Asociacion Zabalketa (www.zabalketa.org).