Tacloban City – DSWD Field Office Eight Regional Director Leticia Corillo challenged   the six mayors and the different department heads of the six new KALAHI-CIDSS Samar municipalities to empower the people through KALAHII-CIDSS and to empower them objectively.

This call was made after the signing of the Memorandum of Agreement between the Department of Social Welfare and Development Field Office Eight and the local chief executives of Daram, Matuguinao, Motiong, San Sebastian, Santo Niño, and Tagapul-an.

Corillo said that empowering people objectively meant setting political differences aside. “A mayor cannot say he will not help a barangay because he lost in that barangay in the local elections; this attitude would defeat the KALAHI-CIDSS objective of community empowerment.

Corillo added that the signing of the Memorandum of Agreement formalizes both parties’ commitments to serve the constituents of the beneficiary-barangays and importantly, to pursue the KALAHI-CIDSS goals of empowerment, improved local governance, and reduce poverty. Corillo also emphasized that empowerment and improved local governance contribute to poverty reduction.

The MOA signing between the D-S-W-D Field Office Eight and these Samar municipalities signals the start of the implementation of the KALAHI-CIDSS with grant funding from Millennium Challenge Corporation, an independent United States funding agency.

Present during the signing of the Memorandum of Agreements, held June 21, 2011 at the Rotary Center, Tacloban City were Mayor Francisco Langi of Motiong, Mayor Lilia Conejos of Sto. Niño, Mayor Melissa de la Cruz of Matuguinao, Mayor Vicente Limpiado, Jr. of Tagapul-an, Mayor Lucia Astorga of Daram, and Mayor Arnold Abalos of San Sebastian.

Also present was DSWD Field Office Eight Assistant Regional Director Jaime Eclavea, who led the members of the KALAHI-CIDSS Regional Project Management Team.