BENGUET is now officially recognized as the most prosperous province in the country and also the most improved in terms of human development.

The province, represented by Governor Nestor Fongwan, received the two top awards recently at the 2009 Philippine Human Development Report Convention held at the Crowne Plaza Galleria Hotel, Ortigas Avenue, Pasig City.

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The awards were conferred by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the Human Development Network (HDN).

Benguet was number one in the category "Gawad sa Makataong Pag-unlad para sa mga Lalawigang May Matas na Kaunlarang Pantao."

The runners-up were the provinces of Rizal, Cavite, and Bataan, respectively.

According to Fongwan, who was informed of the awarding ceremonies only two weeks before, he did not expect that their efforts would culminate to this event.

"I know we have been improving in the educational and health aspects because we've spent much for education and health, but I didn't expect this would put Benguet on top of the list, over Laguna even, which to me is the most industrialized province in the country," Fongwan beamed.

Benguet is the only province among the four that garnered outstanding grades in all the aspects comprising the human development index (HDI), namely life expectancy, education or literacy rate, and standard of living.

The combination of all these factors is the human capita index where Benguet garnered a grade of 0.787 percent, a mere 0.01 percent away from that of Metro Manila, which is 0.79 percent.

A good approximate of adult literacy rate is the high school graduate ratio or the proportion of high school graduates among individuals aged 18 and above.

Benguet topped all the other provinces at 76.6 percent or about seven in every nine adults have completed secondary education. Sulu ranked the last with only 23.1 percent of its population having graduated from high school.

It also ranked the highest in terms of its real per capita income which is around P33,706 versus the P 10,874 per capita income of a family in Tawi-tawi.

The province also garnered the top post in the category "Gawad sa Makataong Pag-unlad para sa mga Lalawigang may Malaking Pag-angat sa Kaunlarang Pantao" or the most improved province.

Biliran province was in second while Siquijor placed third.

Gains in education and in life expectancy were notable in Benguet and Biliran, thus the recognitions.

According to Fongwan, this is the very first time for Benguet to be recognized as such. "We are very happy, but this is also a challenge for us because receiving the award and sustaining the award is another thing."

The recognition of Benguet was based from a study conducted by the UNDP and the HDN, which showed that if the top five most developed provinces were countries, their income would be tantamount to that of the most developed countries in the world.

In contrast, the lowest ranking provinces in terms of human development were Sulu, Tawi-tawi, Maguindanao, Basilan, and Lanao del Sur.

According to Dr. Arsenio Balisacan, president of the HDN, a common factor among the lagging provinces is the prevalence of conflict, which continues to hamper the delivery of basic social services.

Economist Solita Monsod, founding president of the HDN, and UNDP Country Director Renaud Meyer led the conferment ceremonies.

Fongwan stressed the Benguet government will continue to invest on social services and focus on how to improve programs for its constituents.

"We always tell our people that aside from infrastructure, human development is equally important. Human development is people development," the governor stressed.