City dad gets awards on good governance

ANGELES CITY -- Mayor Edgardo Pamintuan received six awards on transparency and good governance in ceremonies held Thursday at the Oxford Hotel, Clark Freeport.

The awards, which were given by Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) secretary Manuel Roxas III, include the Gawad Pamana ng Lahi Award - Highly-Urbanized City category, the Local Governance Performance Management System (LGPMS) Plaque of Recognition - Top 10 for two years in a row and the Seal of Good Housekeeping (SGH) for 2nd straight year.

This city was also awarded certificates of recognition on performance areas of social governance, valuing fundamentals of good governance, and administrative governance.

Pamintuan said the awards are the best defense against tirades of politicians trying to vie and lead the city again.

“The awards are a source of pride and inspiration for Angelenos, coming after more than a decade of lagging behind other LGUs and cities, which zoomed past us in terms of development, governance and delivery of basic services,” he said.

“Since the revival of the LGPMS awards and other citations from the DILG to local governments that perform well, I believe that we have elevated to several notches higher the quality of governance and services by our local governments. I think every LGU is now somehow coveting the recognition of their efforts. These awards are certainly great morale boosters,” Pamintuan said.

In his speech, Roxas lauded all awardees particularly local government unit (LGU) executives and barangay officials.

Roxas said he will continue supporting the initiatives on good governance started by the late DILG secretary Jesse Robredo.

Angeles City joined the list of the Top 13 provincial, city and municipal governments that gained the highest scores for 2011 in the DILG-administered LGPMS, which is being done annually.

LGPMS is a management and development tool that does not only enable local governments to determine their capabilities and limitations in the delivery of public services, but also provides information on the state of local governance performance and their state of local development.

SGH is given to local government units (LGUs) that have excelled in the areas of planning, budgeting, revenue mobilization, financial management and budget execution, procurement and resource mobilization while the Gawad Pamana ng Lahi Award is given to a province, city or municipality that accords government recognition to exemplary performance in administrative, social, economic and environmental governance.

The SGH and Gawad Pamana ng Lahi come with cash awards amounting to millions of pesos.

The DILG also awarded the city government with P30 million last year. Angeles City was voted fourth among the top highly-urbanized cities in the country. (Reynaldo G. Navales)