TACLOBAN: The mayors of Ormoc City and Kananga in Leyte were elated over the recognition of their respective local governments as among this year’s recipients of the Seal of Good Local Governance (SGLG) from the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG).
Ormoc is one of the two cities in Eastern Visayas that has received the highest recognition from the department – a back-to-back win – along with Maasin City, the capital of Southern Leyte province.
‘I am very proud because we worked for the whole year and we don’t know when our work is going to be appreciated, and for us to snag the SGLG for a second in a row sits very well in our hearts because everything that we are doing now is building up on what former mayor Richard (Gomez) has done,’ Mayor Lucy Torres-Gomez said when asked for her reaction on Friday.
Sustaining the SGLG award was Kananga Mayor Manuel Vicente Torres’ challenge to the local government’s department head and town council members after the town bagged the award this year.
T
his is the first time that Kananga, the host of the largest geothermal energy plant in Asia, has received the SGLG award.
Along with Kananga, four other towns in Leyte province – Albuera, Barugo, San Miguel, and Tabon-tabon – also earned this prestigious award from the national government given to local governments for exemplary performance in transparency and accountability.
Other towns included as SGLG awardees from the region are Almeria, Cabucgayan, and Kawayan in Biliran province; Hinunangan, Libagon, Liloan, Macrohon, Padre Burgos, San Juan, Silago, Sogod, and Saint Bernard in Southern Leyte; Basey, Jiabong, and Motiong in Samar; and Arteche, Quinapondan, and Sulat in Eastern Samar.
In the provincial category, the SGLG 2023 winners are Biliran, Leyte, Samar, and Northern Samar.
Each awardee received an SGLG marker and SGLG incentive fund amounting to PHP4 million for provinces, PHP2.3 million for cities, and PHP1.8 million for towns.
The DILG held the national awarding at the Fiesta Pavilion, The M
anila Hotel on Thursday night.
To win the SGLG, a local government must pass the assessment criteria in 10 governance areas: financial administration; 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.
Source: Philippines News Agency