Liloan mayor cited for outstanding performance in CSC search

CEBU, Philippines —  Liloan, Cebu Mayor Christina Frasco was awarded the Presidential Lingkod Bayan regional award in the Civil Service Commission’s 2021 Search for Outstanding Government Workers.

The neophyte mayor was given the award in a virtual ceremony last Friday “for her exemplary performance as Local Chief Executive through proactive initiatives towards innovation in governance and sustainable and inclusive programs fostering excellence in government service.”

The Presidential Lingkod Bayan Award is awarded to an individual or a group for “exceptional or extraordinary contributions resulting from an idea or performance that had nationwide impact on public interest, security, and patrimony.” It is part of CSC’s Honor Awards Program, which recognizes government officials and employees who have displayed outstanding work performance.

Frasco said she is grateful for the recognition.

“I am deeply grateful to accept this award on behalf of the people of Liloan. It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve such loving and resilient people. Wanting to see their lives transform for the better continues to drive me to forge ahead despite the difficulties and tragedies brought forth by this pandemic,” she said.

The mayor said she shares the award with her Team — her fellow municipal officials and employees “whose daily sacrifices and dedication to duty has made it possible for us to continue to elevate the level of government services in Liloan in pursuit of our aspirations for cityhood and our mantra, Live Love Liloan.”

Frasco’s accomplishments include introducing smart technology-based governance innovations to combat the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic, implementing one of the country’s largest scholarship programs, engendering patriotism and pride of place through grassroots programs supporting local artists, promoting sustainable development by incentivizing the protection of the environment, promoting responsive and inclusive governance through economic recovery and social protection programs, and building vital public infrastructure to spur economic growth and improve the quality of life of Filipinos.

Frasco’s efforts at increasing professionalization, transparency, and connectivity of government transactions, implementing strict measures of accountability and performance, with zero tolerance for corruption, resulted in Liloan being a three-time recipient of the much coveted Unqualified Opinion from the Commission on Audit (2021, 2020, 2018), a two-time recipient of the Most Resilient Municipality Award from the Department of Trade and Industry (2019, 2020), and awarded Top Philippine Model Municipality (2019).

In a letter addressed to the mayor, CSC Regional Director Carlos Evangelista said “your laudable endeavors and accomplishments as the Municipal Mayor is truly an inspiration and worthy of emulation.”

Recently, an independent non-commissioned survey by RP-Mission and Development Foundation Inc. (RPMD) rated Frasco as the top performing municipal mayor among the 116 town mayors in Central Visayas.

The Public Satisfaction Survey conducted on August 1 to 10, 2021 among 10,000 respondents in Region 7, named the “Top 5 Municipal Mayors” in Central Visayas with Frasco garnering the top spot with a job performance rating of 70 percent.

Frasco is the first woman president of League of Municipalities of the Philippines Cebu Chapter and the national vice president for the Visayas of the league’s national directorate.

She is also the spokesperson of Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio. — KQD (FREEMAN)