BAGUIO CITY – The Regional Competitiveness Council (RCC) in the Cordillera recognized the top performing local government units from the different provinces that continue to gain headway in economic dynamism, government efficiency, infrastructure and resilience, major components in judging the performance of local governments, during the recognition ceremonies of the Cities and Municipalities Competitiveness Index (CMCI) held at the Albergo Hotel Tuesday.
Myrna Pablo, RCC-CAR chairperson and regional director of the Cordillera office of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI-CAR), commended the 75 municipalities and 2 cities for their 100 percent participation in this year’s competitiveness rankings which illustrates the desire of local officials to sustain the improvement of their performances in the 4 pillars set by the National Competitiveness Council (NCC) in judging the competitiveness of local governments.
Pablo said during the first edition of the competitiveness ranking of local governments, there were only 6 LGUs from the region that participated in 2013 before it increased to 14 LGUs in 2014 followed by 45 LGUs in 2015, and increased to 56 LGUs last year.
Benguet is the most competitiveness province in the Cordillera after it ranked 26 in the national level from 72 participating provinces followed by Kalinga which landed in 37th place and Abra that placed 43rd in the overall rankings.
The Cordillera LGUs that were able to land in the top 20 overall ranking in their respective categories include Buguias, Benguet that placed 17th out of 853 3rd to 6th class municipalities followed by Lamut, Ifugao in the same category while Baguio ranked 11th out of 33 highly urbanized cities.
Baguio city ranked 8th out of 33 highly urbanized cities in economic dynamism, La Trinidad ranked 20th out of 489 1st to 2nd class municipalities while Buguias, Benguet landed in 21st place for the 3rd to 6th class municipalities in the same category.
In terms of government efficiency, Baguio City ranked 7th in the highly urbanized cities category, Tadian, Mountain Province placed 16th in the 3rd to 6th class municipalities , Sta. Marcela, Apayao placed 26th in the same category while Bontoc, Mountain Province ranked 22nd in the 1st to 2nd class municipalities.
Baguio City ranked 20th in the highly urbanized cities category, while Lamut, Ifugao also ranked 20th in the 3rd to 6th class municipalities category for resiliency.
Lamut, Ifugao also placed 24th in the 3rd to 6th class municipalities category in terms of infrastructure development, one of the major pillars of the competitiveness ranking.
The RCC-CAR also gave out special awards to local governments in the region, particularly the Early Bird Award to Kabayan, Benguet, the Best in Documentation to Bontoc, Mountain Province, the Best CMCI Point Person to Alexandria Chorawan of Paracelis, Mountain Province and Most Improved LGU Award to Kibungan, Benguet after it was able to climb 464 notches from last year’s standing of 684 to 220 this year.
By Dexter A. See
