LEGAZPI CITY, Sept. 9 (PNA) — Out of the 120 local government units (LGUs) across the Bicol Region, only 17 will get the Seal of Good Local Governance (SGLG) from the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG).
Elouisa Pastor, DILG Bicol regional director, said all preparations were in place for the SGLG awarding ceremonies on Thursday with Interior and Local Government Secretary Manuel ‘Mar’ Roxas as the guest of honor at the conferment rites.
In a phone interview, Pastor said the SGLG was an annual conferment to LGUs that adhered to performance criteria in areas of good financial housekeeping, disaster preparedness, social protection, business-friendliness and competitiveness, environmental management, peace and order and public safety.
She said only 14 percent, or 17, of the 120 LGUs in Bicol have passed the yearly SGLG assessment based on the given criteria laid by the agency regional and national selection committees.
This year’s SGLG conferment include the provinces of Sorsogon and Catanduanes, Masbate City and the towns of Daet, Mercedes, Paracale, San Lorenzo Ruiz and San Vicente — all in Camarines Norte; Camaligan, Canaman, Del Gallego, Ragay and San Fernando in Camarines Sur; Barcelona, Bulan and Pilar in Sorsogon and Bato town in Catanduanes.
Pastor said the awardees would receive the Php7 million Performance Challenge Fund (PCF) each for provincial awardees, Php5 million for cities and Php3 million each for municipalities.
This year’s awardees will receive a total of Php 61 million in PCF funds, an incentive given to LGUs which come in the form of counterpart funding for local development projects.
Pastor said that of the 254 LGUs that passed the SGLG assessment nationwide, 17 LGUs were from Bicol.
The 17 LGUs have passed and were given “Green” scorecards in the three Basic Core Seal (Social protection, Disaster Preparedness and Good Financial Housekeeping) and additional criteria, where the LGU can excel in one or all these include business friendliness and competitiveness, environmental management and peace and order.
Noticeably, the provinces of Albay — including 17 towns and cities, Camarines Sur, Naga City, Iriga City, Camarines Norte, and Masbate have failed the SGLG assessment by getting “Red” scorecard in the three Basic Core Seal plus One additional criteria.
When asked how and why did Albay LGU failed despite being adjudged as Galing Pook Hall of Fame awardee, Pastor explained that the provincial LGU got a “Red” scorecard in the Social Protection Core Seal by not being compliant, specifically to the Accessibility Law for Persons With Disabilities (PWD)and National Building Code.
She said the assessment team found out that the Albay Capitol Building was not a PWD-friendly edifice because of the absence of ramps and rails for PWDs, specifically at the second floor of the building.
The assessment teams likewise cited poor implementation of social protection core seals in the cities of Legazpi, Naga and other cities across Bicol.
Albay Gov. Joey Salceda, when asked for his reaction over the failure of the provincial LGU to pass the SGLG assessment, said he had already convened the province social cluster and “we are correcting the omissions, essentially the physical aspects like ramps, and by September assessment, we are sure of complying.”
He said he has set aside Php3 million for the construction of access ramps and rails and to be compliant by October this year.
He said they would not dispute the findings but he assured that curative measures would be implemented, although saying “we would have wished proportional consideration of our major programs like our special programs of senior citizens, pregnant and lactating mothers, PWDs and other access to social services.”
He said that the province was not the usual point of care for special sector and conduct programs through the component LGUs,”we focussed our social protection on access programs more than physical.” (PNA)