The Capacity Development Program highlighted the importance of CSOs in the Local Development Councils, Local Health Boards, and Local School Boards as partners in the pursuit of local autonomy and in effectively voicing concerns and issues of the LGUs’ constituents. The four-day activity was designed to capacitate our CSOs that are members of the Local Special Bodies. Different modules and sessions on Local Development, Local Development Council Operations, and Soft Skills for Effective CSOs in the LDCs are discussed on the first day of the program. Present on the second day of the program are from the Sorsogon Provincial Health Office headed by the Provincial Health Officer II Dr. Renato B. Bolo along with his colleagues Mr. Mark Kevin Lustan and Ms. Marynel G. Dometita, Public Health Program Managers. They presented the modules to CSOs in the LHBs to enable CSO engagement in the promotion of public health awareness and enable the CSOs as catalysts of social change in public health. Moreover, Dr. Alvin A. Sario, PH. D., Dean of the College of Arts, Sciences, and Education of UST-Legazpi joined in capacitating the CSOs in the Local School Board. He presented the statistics on the state of education in the Philippines as gathered by the Philippine Statistics Authority and elaborated on the crisis happening in the country to awaken the active participation of CSOs in fighting ignorance and catalyse education reforms.

As part of an innovation initiated by the DILG Sorsogon Provincial Office, a fourth day was transpired that convened the Local Chief Executives in a CSO CapDev Summing Up cum Interfacing of DILG and LCEs in the Province of Sorsogon to effectively communicate the results of the capacity development for their CSOs and to communicate the results of the performed audits for the present and past years and the status of the DILG Locally funded projects. This aims to update the LCEs on the status of their compliance to good local governance and further improve and strengthen the LGUs in promoting High-performance and High-capacity Local Government Units. In attendance were the DILG Sorsogon Provincial Operations Team headed by Provincial Director Arnel Renato L. Madrideo, Cluster Head LGOO VII Leandro S. Gigantoca, Program Manager LGOO VI Rafael L. De La Rama, Jr., Section Chiefs LGOO V Sharon S. Lopez, LGOO V Sheena G. Gonzales-Cerillo, LGOO V Mary Ann N. Monte, and Provincial Officers LGOO VI Mabel E. Morano, LGOO II Juniecel M. Fajardo, LGOO II Maica P. Valladolid, LGOO II Zarex Job Hitosis, PEO II Samantha Zaira De Vera. Likewise, different CSOs from the 14 Municpalities and one City in the Province of Sorsogon were driven and actively participated the said program.