SBMA employee Malou Dungog is set to receive a Pagasa Award for projects for fisher folk communities in the Subic Bay area. Photo by Johnny R. Reblando
SUBIC BAY FREEPORT — A community relations officer of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA), who initiated several community development projects for fisherfolk in the Subic Bay area, will be conferred the Pagasa Award in Malacañang this month.
SBMA Chairman Roberto Garcia proudly announced on Thursday that the Civil Service Commission (CSC) has chosen SBMA employee Marilou Dungog as one of this year’s recipients of the Pagasa Award, which is given for outstanding contributions resulting from an idea or performance that directly benefit more than one department of the government.
Dungog, an administrative officer of the SBMA’s Public Relations Department, will be the fifth SBMA employee to receive the Pagasa Award.
PRD manager Armie Llamas said that Dungog, who embraced the fisherfolk in Olongapo City, Morong in Bataan, and San Antonio and Subic in Zambales, “painstakingly undertook several projects that helped in the economic uplift of the communities.”
Llamas said that despite limited funds for community relations projects, Dungog never complained nor showed any pessimism but instead endeavored even more to reach out to the people.
“Despite the odds, she kept going and pursued her advocacy in helping the fisher folk become self-sustaining and economically independent. And with her admirable tenacity and persistence, she was able to accomplish remarkable feats that have steered them to greater heights,” she noted.
For her part, Dungog, who placed second in the search for the 2011 SBMA Employee of the Year, attributes her success to God, for the inspiration and talent; to her family, for the reason why she strives more; and to the fisher folk without whom she could not have achieved anything significant.
“Para akong tumama sa lotto,” she remarked. “Sa likod pala ng mga hirap na dinaanan ko para ma-organize ang mga fisher folk communities dito sa Freeport area ay may naghihintay na napakalaking pagkilala at pagpapahalaga,” she added.
With the award, Dungog urged her colleagues in the government sector to have “mahabang pasensya” and not focus on what benefit could be gained from the people in the community, but rather on what one could share with them.
Chairman Garcia, meanwhile, said that the SBMA workforce has consistently produced recipients of various awards of excellence.
These include printing machine operator Randy Canlas, who received a similar Pagasa award in 2010; SBMA fire chief Ranny Magno, who also received a Pagasa award in 2010 for leading the SBMA Fire and Rescue Team in helping recover and retrieve trapped miners in Itogon, Benguet, in September 2008; the SBMA Fire and Rescue Team, which was conferred the Gawad KALASAG (National Level) in 2009 for extraordinary courage, heroism, self-sacrifice, and bravery against all odds in times of emergencies and disasters; 2007 SBMA Employee of the Year Joel Viray, who was Pagasa awardee in 2008; and 2008 SBMA Employee of the Year Edmund De Jesus, who also made it to the regional finals in 2009.
SBMA Chairman Garcia said that SBMA employees work with malasakit, excellence and passion — the agency’s core values — in support of the SBMA goal of helping in the economic development of the country and in improving the lives of its stakeholders.
“And it apparently pays off for everyone, especially for those who render their best in public service,” Garcia said.
“It is not surprising, therefore, that we now have several SBMA employees in the honor roll of the CSC Pagasa Award,” Garcia added.
