Friday, January 05, 2007 Capiceños reap reg'l GPK awards
ROXAS CITY -- This bustling capital city known for its seafood and long strip of beach has earned the Hall of Fame Award in the Gawad Pangulo sa Kapaligiran in Western Visayas to cap its consistent outstanding performance in the annual competition over the last seven years.
The city has topped the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG)-led contest, otherwise known as the search for the cleanest and greenest local government units, for seven consecutive years from 2000 to 2006 in the Component Cities Category.
It was also adjudged as having the Cleanest Public Market Restroom in Cities for 2006.
In the provincial category, the Province of Capiz, a surplus food producer in the region, garnered the first runner-up position, helped by Dumarao winning the overall title in the GPK Category A for 1st - 3rd Class Municipalities and Dao's first runner-up finish in Category B for 4th - 6th Class Municipalities.
The awarding for GPK regional winners was part of the 2006 "Pagdayaw" Awards, which is a project of the DILG to recognize innovations and excellence in local governance. The ceremony was held towards the end of December 2006 at the Iloilo Grand Hotel in Iloilo City.
During the ceremony, the DILG Regional Office headed by Regional Director Evelyn A. Trompeta also conferred Performance Incentives for Service and Novelty (PISAN) Awards for top-performing field offices and employees, as well as cited outstanding Lupong Tagapamayapa councils and Gabay ng Mamamayan Action Centers (GMAC) in the region.
DILG-Roxas City was adjudged as the Best Component City Office while the municipal offices in Sapian and Dao were both first runner-up winners for the Best Local Government Operations Officer V and LGOO II levels, respectively.
Barangay Tanque here headed by Punong Barangay Manolito Tecson topped the Lupong Tagapamayapa Incentive Awards for the Component City Category and became one of the region's nominees to the national LTIA search.
Present at the ceremony to receive the awards for the province and city were Roxas City Mayor Antonio Del Rosario and his wife Suzette Del Rosario, DILG Provincial Director Jenny D. Destua, Asst. Provincial Director Alex Piodina, Chief for Operations John Ace Azarcon, City Administrator Emmanuel Losanta, OIC-City LGO Officer Jose Aurelio Roldan, LGOO III Benhur Ambrocio, Sapian LGOO V Bienvenido Acevedo, and Dao OIC-MLGOO II Robert Horneja.
Destua said he profoundly acknowledges the support extended by the Governor, City Mayor, municipal mayors and other provincial, city, municipal and barangay officials and coordinating agencies to the government's Gawad Pangulo sa Kapaligiran program that has made the program sustainable.
Notably, the provincial government headed by Gov. Vicente Bermejo has been providing the prizes in the form of development projects to winning municipalities every year as incentives for their outstanding performance. For its part, the city has adopted the "Matahum ang Matinlo" or city-wide cleanliness and beautification program even before GPK came into being, thus making it easy for them to gain momentum in the program.
Nevertheless, he appealed to the people to continue the struggle to maintain the cleanliness and beautification efforts in Capiz not only for the prizes at stake but for a clean, green and healthy Capiz and its sustainable development.
One way by which the program can be sustained is through continued tree planting activities in appropriate areas, said Destua. He added that some of these trees can be used later for various purposes that will have an impact on the economy, which President Arroyo has said will continue to grow on sound fundamentals including a number of fiscal reforms.
Destua emphasized that we are doing these things because we are concerned about the welfare of the next generations. (PIA-JSC)
