Banaue, Lagawe bag 'Seal of Good Housekeeping' anew

MANILA, Philippines - The tourist town of Banaue, home of the famed Ifugao rice terraces, and the province’s capital town of Lagawe bagged twice in a row Seals of Good Housekeeping,  a yearly recognition system given by the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG).

Leading at least 20 other fourth to sixth class towns in the Cordillera during the awarding at the Nene Pimentel Hall of DILG-Cordillera on Tuesday, Banaue and Lagawe, who were also national awardees in 2010, are getting P1 million each from the Performance Challenge Fund (PCF). 

The PCF is the government’s incentive for LGUs’ transparency and accountability efforts, which provides financial subsidy and support to jumpstart and sustain local economic development initiatives in their localities. 

Other Cordillera towns Lagangilang, Pilar and San Juan of Abra; Sta. Marcela of Apayao; Bokod, Kibungan, Sablan and Tublay of Benguet; Asipulo, Kiangan, Lamut, Mayoyao, Tinoc and Hingyon in Ifugao; Rizal and Tanudan of Kalinga; and Besao, Sabangan, Sagada and Tadian in Mountain Province also got awards. 

The Seal of Good Housekeeping aims to aggressively scale-up interventions to elevate the practice of good governance that promotes transparency, accountability, participation and performance into an institutionalized status. It is part of the government’s good governance and full disclosure policy through the DILG’s “Biyaheng Pinoy: Tapat na Palakad, Bayang Maunlad” program, said DILG-Cordillera director Corazon Guray.

Together with the Seal of Good Housekeeping and the P1-million PCF, awardees are also entitled to be priority areas for other government project/program grants, subsidies and assistance from the national government and its partner development assistance funding agencies and institutions. 

“We are honored and will continue such tradition of good governance,” said Banaue mayor Jerry Dalipog whose town is piloting in six barangays the “chawwa,” a local sharing and self-help system, to save the rice terraces.

“We really need help,” Dalipog said. “Our cultural heritage is at stake because without the rice terraces, our distinctness as a people diminishes.”