Sagada bags housekeeping award

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

MAYOR Faustino Latawan of Sagada town received the seal of Good Housekeeping as a reward for the municipality’s good governance during the 2nd Etag Festival.

The seal was awarded by Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Provincial Director Rufina T. Fegcan.

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The Seal of Good Housekeeping aims to aggressively scale-up interventions to elevate the practice of good governance that values transparency, accountability, participation and performance into an institutionalized status.

It is part of government’s good governance and full disclosure policy through the DILG’s “Biyaheng Pinoy: Tapat na Palakad, Bayang Maunlad” program.

Fegcan said the recognition “shows that the officialdom is committed and sincere in managing the [local] government in a nice way. No disapproving citing from COA in regards to the municipality’s expenditures.”

Fegcan announced the municipality also received a P1-million Performance Challenge Fund (PCF) from the government as award for the achievement.

She added: “as a keeper of seal of good housekeeping, another P500,000 is awarded as a local government support fund.”

“There are only four municipalities in Sagada to receive this seal and Sagada is the first,” Fegcan said. “As keeper of the seal, the municipality entitled to be the priority areas for other government program grants, subsidies and assistance from the national government.”

The other municipalities to receive the seal are Besao, Sabangan, and Tadian.

Latawan thanked the DILG and said the P1 million was used for the rural health unit of the town, the improvement of materials recovery facility and the purchase a mini dump truck.

“As for the P500,000, it was also used for the road rehab in Demang,” he said. “This is what we can accomplished together if we unite. If we continue to unite we will receive more rewards.”

Fegcan challenged, however, the officialdom of Sagada, saying: “You can receive this seal of good housekeeping yearly, or you can stop the good deeds and stop accepting its rewards.”