2 cities, 12 towns in Cebu bag SGLG award

CEBU, Philippines — The cities of Danao and Bogo and a dozen municipalities in Cebu are among the 714 awardees nationwide for the highly-coveted Seal of Good Local Governance (SGLG) of 2024.

All local government units—82 provinces, 148 cities, and 1,486 municipalities were subjected to the SGLG assessment.

Based on the list of passers signed by Interior Secretary Juanito Victor “Jonvic” Remulla, the cities of Danao and Bogo are the only cities in Cebu island that got the final nod from the SGLG.

As for municipalities, 12 made it from Cebu, namely Alegria, Asturias, Carmen, Consolacion, Cordova, Daanbantayan, Medellin, Pinamungajan, San Remigio, Santa Fe, Sogod, and Tuburan.

No province under Region-7 got the seal.

The SGLG is an institutionalized award, incentive, honor, and recognition-based program.

This is done to promote inclusive and people-centric reforms while also empowering local government units (LGUs) to nurture a culture of good governance amidst the challenges in an ever-evolving local government.

This year marks a momentous milestone in the SGLG as it celebrates a decade of recognizing and incentivizing local government units for their commitment to good governance practices, as embodied in the theme “Isang Dekada ng Pagkilala sa Tapat at Mahusay na Pamamahala.”

“With this, the Seal shall continue highlighting the achievements and progress made over the past decade while emphasizing the efforts vital to upholding sound local governance principles of transparency, accountability, and effective public service delivery,” part of DILG’s memorandum circular reads.

This year’s performance measures were further upgraded to include more outcome-based criteria as the SGLG also emphasized the long-term results of good governance.

To get the SGLG, LGUs are to maintain an “all-in” principle which is also the basis for DILG’s assessment.

These criteria include financial administration and sustainability, disaster preparedness, social protection and sensitivity, health compliance and responsiveness, sustainable education, business-friendliness and competitiveness, safety, peace and order, environment management, tourism, heritage development, culture and arts and youth development.

For a province to qualify, at least 10 percent of its component cities and municipalities must also be SGLG passers, while a city or municipality must have at least 50 percent of its component barangays that participated in the Seal of Good Local Governance for Barangay (SGLGB) to qualify. — /ATO (FREEMAN)