Top performing city eyes sisterhood with Cebu City

CEBU, Philippines - The top performing city in the country is eyeing a sisterhood agreement with Cebu City, which placed ninth in the latest performance report released by the Department of the Interior and Local Government.

Valenzuela City, which bested all cities in the highly urbanized and independent component cities category in the September 2011 Local Governance Performance Management System (LGPMS), is looking forward to share its best practices with Cebu City.

LGPMS measures the performance of local government units in key areas of governance: administrative, social, economic and environmental governance as well as transparency, participation and financial accountability. The cities are scored in a scale of 1 to 5, 1 being the lowest and 5 the highest.

 Cebu City was ninth among the top performing cities in the country based on the web-based self assessment tool of the DILG.

Aside from Valenzuela and Cebu City, the other cities in the top 10 include San Juan, second; Puerto Princesa, third; Angeles, fourth; Davao, fifth; Naga, sixth; Zamboanga, seventh; Iligan, eighth; and Taguig, tenth.

Valenzuela City Mayor Sherwin Gatchalian, who recently met with Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia, is scheduled to meet with Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama to discuss the sisterhood agreement between the two cities.

Gatchalian believes that with the two cities mutually helping each other, they will be able to maintain and even improve their standing in the DILG performance rating.

Among the areas in governance that Gatchalian hopes to share with Cebu City is his People, Peace and Order and Pupils or the PPP program.

According to him, PPP is the summation of the projects and programs which is evaluative of good governance to foster the city’s competitive advantage for the benefit of the constituency.

Gatchalian hopes to share how his city has able to raise its income by increasing the taxpayers’ confidence through programs advocating transparency and accountability, knowing that small and medium-scale entrepreneurs are the driving force behind the city’s economic growth.

He bragged about his advocacy for lasting peace and order, which earned Valenzuela the distinction as one of the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation’s business-friendly cities in the country this year.

Valenzuela is also recognized as safer, conducive and economically viable city to live in. (FREEMAN)