The Newly Elected Officials (NEO) Orientation Program is DILG’s capacity building for the sets of Local Officials who were elected on May 14, 2007 elections and who will now serve for a new term of office until 2010. DILG Memorandum Circular 2007-66 was issued by SILG Ronaldo V. Puno to provide guidelines to all DILG Field Officers for the conduct of the NEO Program.

The NEO Orientation Program has two (2) major components. Component I – The Orientation Program with two (2) parts, General Orientation Program and Provincial Orientation and Alliance Building. Component II – Briefing on Special Topics, along Governance, Administration, Social Services, Economic Development and Environmental Management.

Preparatory activities along the NEO Orientation Program implementation were already initiated by the Local Government Academy. A Training of National Coaches was undertaken last June 13-15, 2007 , with ARD Ananias M. Villacorta as Regional LGA Coordinator and Regional Coach Annabel F. Yangson as participant from DILG Caraga. Subsequently, a Cluster roll-out workshop followed which was attended by provincial training managers and coaches. Caraga Region, Region 10 and Region 9 composed the Cluster V held in Gardenia Hotel, Cagayan de Oro City on June 17-20, 2007. A total of four (4) training managers and 25 coaches of Caraga Region participated in the roll-out workshop.

The participants gained learning insights that include the Powerful Alternative Learning Strategies (PALS). The learner-centered approach brings in key concepts such as paradigm shift, inclusivity and universal genius-concepts as guide in making powerful choices in dealing with work and family. Another approach is the Multiple Intelligence and Learning Styles which can be applied by the coaches in leading the learners in the transformation processes.

The outputs of the coaches workshop are the respective Provincial Actions Plans which were formulated to initially implement the NEO Orientation Program at the local level. f
(LGOO V Annabel F. Yangson, Assistant Chief– TSD)