THE Guico administration was hardly fazed or showed concern that Pangasinan missed out on the Seal of Local Government Governance (SGLG) this year for the first time since the award was introduced in 2015 and made into law in 2019 by Congress.

Vice Governor Mark Lambino naturally downplayed the impact of the failure of the Guico administration to secure the P4 million incentive program for the province when he cited the fact that Gov. Ramon Guico III only served one-half of 2022, the other half by his predecessor, former Gov. Amado Espino III. This flimsy reason for Pangasinan’s failure only served to highlight the fact that it was the Guico III administration that failed, not the Espino III administration that consistently won recognition for the province since 2015.

A cursory review of the assessment criteria shows why the six months performance of the Guico administration failed. SGLG evaluated policies and performance of the provincial government on “Financial Administration and Sustainability; Disaster Preparedness; Social Protection and Sensitivity; Health Compliance and Responsiveness; Sustainable Education; Business-Friendliness and Competitiveness” and among others.

The Guico administration was hardly reported to have engaged purposely for these.

Mr. Lambino, however, expressed confidence that Mr. Guico’s vision to transform the province into a modern, progressive   program will secure the 2025 award for Pangasinan. He cited the P6-billion loan secured from Landbank to cover infra activities like construction of the PLEX, construction of new airport in W. Pangasinan, a new hospital, etc. but all of which, except facelift of the Capitol l compound, are expected to start next year.  Yet, how many of these infra projects can impact on DILG’S set criteria for 2023?

Perhaps it’s not too late for Pangasinan if Mr. Guico and the provincial board start outlining mitigating plans for farmers when the expected worst El Niño crisis hits Pangasinan early next year. It can also relaunch an anti-illegal drug campaign given PDEA’s report that P4 million worth of illegal drugs were seized to date. (Recall that PDEA busted a P2.3 billion drug distribution operation in Binalonan in 2022 but that was not even investigated by the Guico administration).

Nonetheless, Pangasinenses still have reasons to be confident that the province will regain its prestigious place in good governance under the Guico administration in 2025 for 2024 performance, and beyond.

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