BAGUIO CITY – Thirty three local government units (LGUs) in the Cordillera will be receiving their respective Seal of Good Local Governance (SGLG) awards from the Department of the Interior and Local Government during fitting ceremonies that will be scheduled in the coming weeks.
Based on the official list of awardees of the 2024 SGLG that was made available in the DILG website, two provinces, one city and thirty municipalities from the Cordillera were able to pass the 10-point criteria of the coveted award.
The 2024 SGLG awardees from the Cordillera include the provinces of Apayao and Mountain Province, Tabuk City, the towns of Danglas, Dolores, La Paz, Peñarrubia, San Juan and Tayum in Abra; Conner, Flora, Luna, Pudtol and Sta. Marcela in Apayao; Bokod, Buguias, Kapangan, Kibungan, La Trinidad, Sablan, Tuba and Tublay in Benguet; Asipulo, Hungduan, Kiangan and Lamut in Ifugao; Balbalan, Rizal and Tinglayan in Kalinga and Barlig, Bauko, Besao and Sabangan in Mountain Province.
The SGLG award, incentive, honor and recognition-based program seeks to uphold its commitment in bringing about people-oriented reforms that will enable the local governments to foster a culture of good governance amidst the challenges in the local government landscape.
Under the said program, local governments must pass the 10 governance areas such as financial administration and sustainability; disaster preparedness; social protection and sensitivity; health compliance and responsiveness; sustainable education; business friendliness and competitiveness; safety, peace and order, environmental management; tourism, heritage development, culture and arts and youth development.
Further, the SGLG also anticipates and seeks to influence potential actions of local governments in response to the rapidly changing times through direction-setting and strengthened performance information as the government looks forward to a more prosperous, inclusive and resilient society.
The successful Cordillera SGLG passers are among the 41 provinces, 96 cities and 557 municipalities from the different parts of the country that will be conferred the coveted recognition.
Last year, only 23 Cordillera LGUs passed the national validation that was conducted for the sustained search for top performing local governments that adhere with the standards of good variance.
Mountain Province Gov. Bonifacio C. Lacwasan, Jr. welcomed the said development, saying that the long years of hard work, perseverance and passion to achieve the standards of good governance paid off.
“It was our collective effort that made the difference. We owe our success to our dedicated government workers who exerted extra time, effort and resources to comply with the stringent governance areas coupled with the utmost cooperation from concerned stakeholders,” Lacwasan stressed.
For his part, Tabuk City Mayor Darwin C. Estran֮ero emphasized the importance of having a specific vision for the city that guided the local government in being able to comply with the stringent governance standards and deliver to the people quality services.
“We hope that our award will serve as an inspiration and motivation to our public servants to elevate to a higher level their performance of their duties and responsibilities that will translate to better services for our people” Mayor Estran֮ero stressed. By Dexter A. See
