LINGAYEN— Pangasinan became among only five provinces throughout the country that consistently bagged the Seal of Good Local Governance (SGLG) award from the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) since 2015.     

This was announced during the awards ceremony of the 2019 SGLG Award presided by Interior and Local Government Secretary Eduardo Año held at Fiesta Pavillon at the Manila Hotel on Nov. 4.

The other four SGLG awardee provinces are Isabela, Quirino, Bulacan and Aklan.

Gov. Amado Espino III received the fifth SGLG award for Pangasinan from Secretary Año. He was accompanied by Provincial Planning and Development Office Coordinator Benita Pizarro and Randy de la Rosa, DILG provincial director.

Butch Velasco, provincial information officer, pointed out that from among the 56 provinces in the country, Pangasinan had the most number of SGLG awardees this year —21 municipalities and two cities.

The awardees from Pangasinan are the cities of San Carlos and Alaminos, and the municipalities of Aguilar, Alcala, Anda, Asingan, Balungao, Basista, Bayambang, Bugallon, Calasiao, Infanta, Lingayen, Malasiqui, Mangaldan, Mangatarem, Natividad, Rosales, San Manuel, San Quintin, Sta. Maria, Tayug and Urbiztondo.

Pangasinan bagged its fifth SGLG award even based on the expanded criteria set by DILG for all local government units in the country to meet.      

In his speech during the ceremony, Secretary Año said that the SGLG has expanded the scope of criteria over the years, adding that “last year, we decided to push the limits even further and raised the bar to an all-in seven indicators.” 

The LGU awardees passed the minimum requirements for seven areas of governance: financial administration, disaster preparedness, social protection, peace and order, business friendliness and competitiveness, environmental management, and tourism, culture and the arts.

Año said the criteria will continue to be expanded and choosing awardees will go through a more rigorous process. “Hindi biro ang pagkalooban ng SGLG dahil ang tanging makakatangap nito ay ang mga pinakamahusay, pinakamatiyaga, at pinakamatatag na pamahalaang lokal”  he added.

Each awardee received an SGLG marker, the Performance Challenge Fund (PCF) amounting to P4.5 Million for a province, P3.5-M for a city and P2.5-M for a municipality. (Leonardo Micua)

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