Dumaguete City - Barangay Batinguel of Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental increased its budget for their nutrition program. This was one of the findings of the members of the Regional Evaluation Team who visited the barangay as one of the sample barangays in the conduct of 2022 the Monitoring Evaluation of Local Level Plan of Implementation Pro (MELLPI Pro) in the said city. The inclusion of barangays during the annual MELLPI Pro in Central Visayas is following the RNC Resolution No. 020-02 (s. 2020) also known as “Expanding the Regional MELLPI Pro Coverage and Enjoining Local Nutrition Committees to Adopt the MELLPI Pro” which states to include the visit of sample barangays to widen provision of technical assistance to LGUs.
During the evaluation, the members of the Regional Evaluation Team observed a notable budget increase that was made by the BNC last year 2021 and present year 2022 of Php 200,000 to support the nutrition activities in the barangay. Barangay Captain and Barangay Nutrition Committee (BNC) Chair Hon. Frankie S. Credo proudly said that in spite of the pandemic that have caused a change in the delivery of their services, Barangay Batinguel’s nutrition programs continue to serve its constituents achieving high percentages in their accomplishments.
This was affirmed by Barangay Kagawad and Barangay Nutrition Action Officer (BNAO) Hon. Ramises A. Flores who also shared that the BNC was also able to reach almost 100 percent in their targets and almost all nutrition programs were successfully implemented with the help of their 3 active BNSs, BNS Lopito Patrimonio, BNS Lee Buenavista, BNS Myraluna Andagan. BNAO Flores is also the BNAO Representative of Central Visayas Association of Nutrition Action Officers Inc for 2022-2024.
Barangay Batinguel with a population of more than 8.000 is considered one of the biggest barrios in the city. This Barangay is close to the city center, yet far enough away from the busy streets of Dumaguete.
The word “batinguel’ comes from a type of hard stone. The locals says that during the early part of their history the people of this barrio had that strong adherence of sectionalism. They were hostile to strangers, and in fact most strangers and visitors frequenting their area were stoned. These natives were also part of the rebellious headed people. Hence, the neighboring barrios and visitors called the barrio Batinguel.
The barangay’s name had its reference to the hardheadedness of the people and the stone actually used by the natives against visitors and strangers. Although the characteristics of the people have already changed in the course of time, yet the name continued to live up to this time. These characteristics though were no longer present in the officials and its constituents. In fact, the barangay is very supportive and is running to be the best performing barangay in nutrition program implementation as shown in the consistent drop of numbers of stunted and wasted children recorded in their barangay. // ND II James Aaron S. Perez, RND
