TABUK CITY, Kalinga – A team composed of personnel from the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG)-Kalinga conducted the 2024 Seal of Good Local Governance (SGLG) assessment to the city government on June 17.
The assessment team aims to find if the city government and its departments have been compliant to the guidelines and laws passed based on the SGLG assessment criteria and their findings will serve as basis for the DILG-CAR for their subsequent validation.
The DILG’s highest honor is granted to a local government that prioritizes integrity and good performance as cornerstones of real local autonomy and growth. Tabuk City has won the SGLG twice in a row, in 2022 and 2023, and is aggressively seeking its third.
DILG-Kalinga Provincial Director Anthony Ballug said that the city government should not just comply with the minimum requirements to bag the SGLG award but aim to reach a 100% compliance rate.
Ballug lauded the city government for its 14% growth rate in the past year and said that they should create a strategy to keep that 14% and possibly increase it as the years go by.
“You continue that, and come up with even more measures,” he said.
The director went on to remark that if all employees take their jobs seriously, it is not impossible to receive the award while simultaneously providing superior service to the people.
Mayor Darwin Estrañero reminded employees that the SGLG is a progressive award with evolving criteria, requiring the city government to perform to their full potential to claim the Seal.
“The standards the SGLG are always changing, so we should always aim to achieve 100% not just the passing rate of 90%,” he said.
Estrañero underscored that it is not the SGLG plaque or the distinction which the city government should aim for but the feeling of contentment after delivering the best service possible to the people of Tabuk.
The assessment team rigorously scrutinized the city government’s performance in ten governance areas, namely: financial administration 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 the arts; and youth development. By Edward Joseph Gacuya