BY DOMINIQUE GABRIEL G. BAÑAGA
BACOLOD City – “Our awards will inspire us to do better,” said Atty. Rayfrando Diaz, provincial administrator.
The Negros Occidental provincial government bagged the championship in the “Excellence in Environmental Governance” and trophies in six other categories of the 2022 Excellence in Local Governance Awards held in Iloilo City on Dec. 5.
The province also placed first runner-up in “Excellence in Economic Governance”, “Excellence in Local Legislation”, “Excellence in Administrative Governance”, and “Excellence in Social Governance”, and placed second in “Excellence in Public Safety, Peace, and Order”.
The Excell Awards, given by the Department of Interior and Local Government in Western Visayas, recognize local government units for “best practices” in administrative governance, social governance, economic governance, environmental governance, local legislation, and public safety, peace and order.
Diaz said Negros Occidental received a total of P20,000 as second placer and another P10,000 for other areas.
He also pointed out that Negros Occidental is the only province that won that is not a Seal of Good Local Governance (SGLG) awardee.
The SGLG, established by virtue of Republic Act 11292, is an award, incentive and recognition- based program for LGUs nationwide to continually progress and improve their performance in the areas of financial administration; disaster preparedness; social protection and sensitivity program; health compliance and responsiveness; programs for sustainable education; business friendliness and competitiveness; safety, peace and order; environmental management, tourism, heritage development, culture and arts; and youth development.
“The awards are icing on the cake but the meat is efficient performance in the delivery of basic services for the Negrenses,” Diaz said./PN
