SAMMY JULIAN
THOSE who have had the opportunity to work alongside APPEND party-list’s Rep. Pablo Roces Nava III know well that the Ilonggo lawyer tend to toil with energy and commitment.
A “diligent coworker” is how they describe the former member of the Toll Regulatory Board (TRB). In fact, this is one of the major reasons that the major umbrella organization of micro finance nongovernment organizations (NGOs) in the country selected Nava to represent its interests in the hallowed halls of Congress.
When buried deep in an endeavor close to his heart, always in the air is his high-spiritedness and inability to come to a complete stop, which has proved time and again a time-saving asset.
Nava proved this again when, one day this month, he spearheaded three significant activities in Dumangas, Iloilo.
Aug. 22 began bright and early for this one-time professor of law at the Central Philippine University, where he taught political law subjects, as he led the local government unit (LGU) of Dumangas under Mayor Rolando Distura in planting hundreds of tamarind, jackfruit and pomelo seedlings at the periphery of Dumangas Central School.
It was a truly symbolic undertaking as it demonstrates the support of Dumangas to the national government’s greening program.
At midmorning, Nava took part in a ceremonial groundbreaking program held at the Dumangas public market. This event signaled the start of the construction of a P4.9-million multipurpose building project, the budget of which came from the fund appropriations that the party-list solon himself initiated.
As if this was not enough, the APPEND representative formally announced at the program an additional funding of P2 million for 2015 to the public market project.
To cap the day, Nava personally witnessed the signing of a memorandum of agreement between the Dumangas local government and Taytay Sa Kauswagan, Inc. (TSKI), APPEND’s affiliate organization in Iloilo, at the Iloilo State College of Fisheries Dumangas Campus.
The agreement provides for a P1-million funding by the Dumangas LGU of a livelihood project for designated small entrepreneur-beneficiaries in the town to be managed by TSKI, which will also put up a counterpart fund.
Nava has been a longstanding member of TSKI, a major player in microfinance training in the depressed areas in the province. He has been with TSKI for the past 23 years.
Clearly, APPEND, formerly known as the Alliance of Philippine Partners in Enterprise Development, made the right decision in choosing Nava as its voice in Congress.
He epitomized what the organization adheres to: a catalyst in increasing productivity through business development and holistic transformation.
APPEND is one of the first and the largest groups of Christian microfinance NGOs in the Philippines that provides microenterprise development and growth support and education services to all, regardless of religious and political affiliations, ethnicity, and color.
Founded by Christian businessmen from the Philippines, APPEND was registered with the Security and Exchange Commission as a non-stock, nonprofit organization, with Registry No. 186944 in 1991. It was also accredited by the Philippine Council for NGO Certification as a credible donee institution.
Today, like the party-list he represents, Nava has taken on the role of facilitating the growth and viability and the continuing development of the poor micro entrepreneurs, their families and communities./PN
