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I. Introduction: The municipality of Malinao has been part of the Gawad Pangulo Sa Kapaligiran Program since its inception in 1987, when it was then called the Clean and Green Program. The municipality has been a consistent winner in this contest, even vying for the regional crown in l998. Only when the municipality's newly-built slaughterhouse became non-functional because of its proximity to the collapsing bank of the Aklan River did its ranking among the 17 municipalities of Aklan declined. Still it is among the top 5 in the province. In 2001, Malinao was in 3rd place. II. Malinao and the Gawad Pangulo Sa Kapaligiran (GPK) Malinao is an ideal contestant for the GPK because the poblacion (as it seems the poblacion is the main area that is being evaluated) has a classical setting of a small Spanish colonial town: the municipal hall faces the Catholic Church with a big public space between these two institutions of authority. With the start of the Clean and Green Program way back in 1987, the people and also the municipal government became convinced of the importance of this program and started planting trees and cleaning the areas around their residences. The program has been so internalized by the Malinaonons that it is now considered a priority to have a green and clean town. Because the GPK Contest is held annually, the basic program and its attendant activities are already institutionalized in the plans and programs of the municipality, so it would be redundant to reproduce these documents for the sake of the GPK. For example, our anti-littering ordinance enacted in 1981 still stands today, so does the ordinance sectioning the market stalls, enacted in 1989. Malinao has all these ordinances already on the books, and was the top awardee in previous years because of that fact. III. Highlights of GPK in Malinao The municipality of Malinao has accomplished/fulfilled all the criteria for the GPK assessment. However we would like to highlight some elements that stood out when we did our initial survety based on the GPK assessment criteria. First, we still donÕt have a permanent slaughterhouse. Our present slaughterhouse is a temporary one which we use until a new one is built. Luckily, we have found a lot whose owners may be willing to sell at an agreed price. This lot is located ideally in Barangay Manhanip which meets the GPK criterion that it be Òwithin a desirable distance from populated areas.Ó Second, we have a new dumping site located at Barangay San Ramon. Again, although this is not specified in the criteria, the site is Òwithin a desirable distance from populated areas.Ó We are allocating funds to develop this site into a truly state of the art municipal dump. Third, we have two (2) operational Vegetable Demonstration Farms. The one accessible to the Assessment Team is located in the poblacion, while the other is in Barangay Sugnod, which may not be accessible to the Team because the members would have to hike from Sugnod proper some 30 minutes into the mountains to reach the farm. Lastly, Malinao is now on the Internet. Our address is: Our website is at Stage 3 of e-Readiness on the scale of government agenciesÕ presence in cyberspace according to the national governmentÕs categorization. Our town may be the most advanced among the government agencies here in Aklan. Our website is updated weekly. The Assessment TeamÕs activity today will be on the web by next week, after we have developed the pictures. For now, aside from the usual official contents we have our Independence Day celebrations, fiesta celebration, and ati-atihan up on the website. IV. DOCUMENTS IN SUPPORT OF THE GAWAD PANGULO SA KAPALIGIRAN PROGRAM The documents in support of the GPK CY 2002 are compiled in a separate folder to make this executive summary simple. |