3 Cebu LGUs bag awards for digital governance

CEBU, Philippines —  Three local government units in Cebu received awards during the Digital Governance Awards (DGA) 2021 on Friday, October 29.

The Municipality of Tuburan along with the cities of Cebu and Mandaue bagged honors in this year’s  DGA, an annual search for best practices in local government units in the country utilizing information and communications technology (ICT) to effectively and efficiently deliver public services directly to their constituents and to their business stakeholders.

The three LGUs won in different categories. There are five categories contested this year under municipalities, cities and provinces.

Tuburan received the “Best in Customer Empowerment (G2C)” category among the municipalities. This category recognizes the measurable effect of an LGU’s outstanding practices using ICT solutions in the education and engagement of the public and in the use of electronic facilities and channels towards providing improved, timely and relevant delivery of public services.

As such, Tuburan’s Warning System came out victorious over Bacnotan, La Union’s Auto-BAC 1.0 while Mangaldan, Pangasinan’s iNET Library with Tech4Ed placed third.

For the city level, it was Manila’s Connection for Inclusion that emerged the best.

Cebu City, on the other hand, placed second in the Best in COVID-19 Pandemic Response (G2P) for its Vaccination Information Management system (VIMS).

The G2P is a special category that recognizes the LGUs who were extremely adaptable to the unusual circumstances presented by the COVID-19 pandemic in the timely delivery of their services with the use of ICT solutions won by Baguio City for its Baguio Inoculation Digital Application (BIDA while Taytay Rizal’s Trail and Vax topped the municipalities’ class.

Cebu City’s Taxpayers e-Payment Portal (TePP) also bagged bronze in the Best in LGU Empowerment (G2G) award. This category values the LGU’s initiative to connect data and systems with other government offices for the convenience of their constituents and to improve its public service delivery.

Baguio also won the G2G top spot for cities while Province of Bulacan’s Socio Economic Profile system among the provinces.

Mandaue City, for its part, got the bronze in the Best in Business Empowerment (G2B). This category cites the significant effect of an LGU’s laudable practices in integrating ICT solutions and the commitment of its administration in the LGU’s responsiveness to the needs of business enterprises, thereby creating business opportunities.

The G2B’s top city is Ilagan for its Tienda Ilagan while Libertad, Antique’s eWaterworks dominated the municipalities’ class.

The fifth category, the  Best in LGU Government Internal Processes (G2I)  is for the LGU’s Initiative in developing or improving its internal systems and adhering to various recognized standards, to be able to provide better service to its internal customers with Sarangani’s Barangay Legislative Information Tracking System winning the provincial level, while Baguio won the city division for its Electronic Budgeting, Procurement, Inventory and Monitoring System (eBPIMs) and Mina, Iloilo for its Mina Electronic Transparent Financial Management System in the municipality level.

The DGA shares the vision of establishing indices for local government units across the country in harnessing the potentials of ICT towards raising the bar in delivering public service.

The just-concluded DGA is organized by the ICT Industry Development Bureau (IIDB) of the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), in partnership with the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the National ICT Confederation of the Philippines (NICP). – KQD (FREEMAN)