“Local governance is on the right track and better than ever,” as a record number of local government units have received the Department of Interior and Local Government’s (DILG) Seal of Good Local Governance (SGLG), the president of the Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines (ULAP), Dax Cua said.
The DILG conferred the SGLG on 714 LGUs earlier this month, which marks the most honorees since the program’s implementation in 2015.
“Now more than ever, it has been easier to establish ties among LGUs and emulate best practices.”
“The record number of SGLG recipients shows that we are making sustained headway in our efforts to spur local development. I am confident that next year, even more LGUs will receive the seal,” said Cua, who is also the governor of Quirino.
Quirino is among those who received the seal. It was Quirino’s 8th SGLG.
The SGLG is an incentives program recognizing LGUs’ performance in transparency and accountability, based on 10 criteria areas:
* good fiscal or financial administration or financial sustainability
* 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
* youth development.
According to the DILG, a total of P980,281,000 has been set aside for the 2024 SGLG Incentive Fund.
Provincial LGU awardees will receive P3 million each, while city LGU awardees get P2 million each, and municipality LGU awardees P1,153,000 each.
Cua attributed the rise in number of SGLG awardees to greater collaboration not only between LGUs and the national government, but also between LGUs themselves.
“Now more than ever, it has been easier to establish ties among LGUs and emulate best practices,” said the governor.
“Hopefully, we can also continue collaborating to address the effects of climate change, which is the greatest challenge of our time and requires that we work together if we are to have any chance of living with the new reality,” Cua added.
