Las Piñas shares formula for success

After receiving numerous prestigious awards and citations from government and private organizations for its outstanding programs this year, Las Piñas City has become a model local government unit in the country and the favorite "Lakbay-Aral" destination of other towns and cities all over the country.

Major awards and citations include being the model LGU on cutting red-tape and one of the country’s most competitive metropolitan cities as cited by the Department of the Interior and Local Government, Asian Institute of Management and Department of Trade and Industry.

Recently, government officials from the municipality of Taguig, Passi City in the province of Iloilo, town of Tuy in Batangas, Legazpi City, Nueva Vizcaya and Sipalay, Negros Occidental visited Las Piñas City Hall to observe the city’s computerized operations in processing business permits and licenses and other innovative approaches implemented by the city government aimed at making its delivery of services fast and efficient.

Las Piñas City Mayor Vergel Aguilar expressed his willingness to share his expertise and "formula" in transforming Las Piñas City, from a lowly municipality, into one of the most awarded highly urbanized cities in the country today.

The city government continues to be swarmed with requests from other LGUs for a visit to Las Piñas and an audience with Aguilar for a discussion and exchange of ideas.

Early this year, Las Piñas, together with Davao, Cebu, Marikina and Makati, also came out on top in AIM and DTI’s Competitive Cities Ranking Project 2002.

An AIM Policy Center report stated that Las Piñas City is among the most business-friendly LGUs in the country, having the fastest and most efficient process of providing business permits to local and foreign investors.

Last year, the DILG-Local Government Academy also conferred on Las Piñas the "Model City on Streamlining Regulatory Systems to Cut Red Tape in Local Government Transaction in the National Capital Region."