It was a grand week for the barangay secretaries of this city when the 5-day Capability Enhancement Training-workshop for Barangay Secretaries was pushed through on January 8–12, 2024. It was held at the city’s cozy conference hall on the 4th floor of the magnificent Baybay City Hall.
Specific topics were discussed daily including the Basic MS Word and Excel applications, Writing of the Minutes of Meetings, Records-Keeping and Management, Creation of Facebook Pages, and the Key Functions of Barangay Secretaries as mandated by the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG).
These topics were meticulously designed for barangay secretaries as essential interventions to address skills deficiencies in producing quality reports and outputs in their respective barangays. Further, this seminar-workshop was especially conducted to refresh longstanding barangay secretaries and to orient the newly appointed ones on their obligatory reports to higher offices.
The City Information Office, which spearheads the activity, is grateful to the Office of the City Mayor for its indulgence in approving this worthwhile endeavor. Ms. Juvy Pedrera, the city’s CLGOO of the DILG Baybay, quipped that, “Baybay City is the only LGU in the region that took the initiative to hold this kind of training particularly for barangay secretaries. Thus, this is something that should be appreciated and taken advantage of.”
Based on their impressions, they were hesitant, at first, to attend the said training due to the duration and the mounting responsibilities that they have in their respective barangays. However, in the end, they were glad that they attended the training-workshop because it was all worth it.
“This seminar-workshop is very informative. It is not just acquiring knowledge but transformational on our part. Thus, I am very thankful for this opportunity. To the persons behind this event, kudos to all of you. I have learned a lot.” “I have learned so much from this seminar-workshop which I will apply to improve my performance as a barangay secretary.” “We left our tasks in the barangay to attend this seminar-workshop but it was worth it because we learned a lot which will make our lives easier.” “Thank you so much for the opportunity to attend the 5-day seminar-workshop because we have learned a lot that we can apply in our respective barangays.” “I am thankful for the additional knowledge and it was a nice venue for our sharing of ideas and experiences.” “Thank you for this seminar workshop because I have gained confidence in doing my tasks as a barangay secretary.” “Thank you for the fun-learning experience.” “I am a newly-appointed barangay secretary and I really do not know what to do. So, thank you so much for this seminar-workshop because I learned a lot. I hope that there will be more seminar-workshops like this.” These were just few of the comments written by the participants on the Freedom Wall that was provided by the facilitators.
This was because according to them, unlike other similar activities, the said 5-day seminar-workshop was more on hands-on activities which made learning fun and had tackled timely and core issues that were applicable in their respective barangays. They also had fun exchanging amusing anecdotes of their experiences in the barangay.
At most 88 percent of barangay secretaries successfully completed the entire duration of the training. A culmination ceremony and distribution of certificates was held in the afternoon of January 12, 2024 which was graciously attended by none other than the newly-elected Liga ng mga Barangay President, Hon. Jules Lucas C. Cari, the city’s administrator, Atty. Florante A. Cayunda Jr. and City Local Government Operations Officer Ms. Juvy C. Pedrera.
This Office is sincerely thankful to the participants for their active involvement during the training and is also looking forward that they will apply their learnings to improve their performance and deliver effective services in their barangays. (Mirian L. Tan, Community Affairs Officer, City Information Office, Baybay City, Leyte)
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(Left). Hon. Jules Lucas C. Cari, Liga ng mga Barangay President delivering a short message during the Culmination Ceremony. (Right) From left to right, Ms. Juvy C. Pedrera, CLGOO-DILG, Hon. Jules C. Cari, Mr. Teodulo Milleza Jr., Secretary of Barangay Gabas, and Ms. Marissa M. Cano, City Information Officer during the distribution of certificates.