The capital town of Virac was among the nine local government units in the Bicol region who won the Seal of Good Local Governance (SGLG) awarded this year based on their achieving the requirements in 2018.
Aside from Virac, the other eight awardees from the region are Polangui in Albay; Paracale in Camarines Norte; Magarao and Tigaon in Camarines Sur; and, Bulusan, Irosin, Juban and Pilar in Sorsogon.
Among the cities, only Iriga, Legazpi, Ligao and Masbate passed the stringent and refined “All-In” criteria for the coveted award while Camarines Norte was the lone province to hurdle the evaluation.
A total of 380 LGUs, composed of 17 provinces, 57 cities and 306 municipalities are in the list of 2019 SGLG awardees. This is a considerable increase from the 263 LGUs which passed last year’s SGLG composed of 17 provinces, 39 cities, and 207 towns, indicating that the LGUs strived to attain the requirements.
Through DILG Memorandum Circular No. 2019-44, the SGLG 2019 was geared towards institutionalizing a culture of performance among LGUs which utilizes performance information for interventions and actions.
It required LGUs to pass all seven governance areas, namely: Financial Administration; Disaster Preparedness; Social Protection; Peace and Order; Business Friendliness and Competitiveness; Environmental Protection; and Tourism Culture and the Arts, but with more specific and defined requirements.
Some of the refinements integrated in the SGLG 2019 provincial, city and municipality criteria were plus 30% of recommendations fully complied with for Good Financial Housekeeping; and the inclusion of all quarters in CY 2018 in the compliance with the Full Disclosure Policy of Local Budget and Finances, Bids and Public Offering for the Financial Administration indicator.
Disaster Preparedness criteria for provincial, city and municipality required a convened PDRRMC; a contingency plan for top two high risk hazard; and at least one LDRRMC or LDRRMO head/plantilla LDRRMO staff trained in Incident Command System.
Under the Social Protection, provincial governments were required that during CY 2018 or 2019, at least 50% of the provincial government-run hospitals are Philhealth accredited; and at least 50% of city goverment-run hospitals are Philhealth accredited for maternity care package, primary care benefits, and TB-DOTS for CY 2018 or 2019 for cities and municipal governments.
The Peace and Order assessment tool required provincial, city and municipal governments to pass the Peace and Order Performance Audit rating, while, under the Environmental Management, city and municipal government must have convened their solid waste management board.
Recipients of this year's award will be conferred with the SGLG marker; eligibility to the Performance Challenge Fund (PCF) to finance their local development initiatives; and an access to other programs and capacity development assistance from the DILG. (with a report from PIA InfoComm)