THE Province of Negros Occidental was awarded as the Best Performing Province in Western Visayas in 2018 Search for Excellence in Local Governance Awards of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG).
The awarding ceremony was held on Wednesday, December 12, at Diversion 21 Hotel in Iloilo City.
Governor Alfredo Marañon, Jr. received the award for the province together with the Capitol department and office heads.
Pagdayaw or the Excell Awards 2018 is an annual tradition of recognizing the commendable performance and novelty of the local government units and the DILG personnel towards excellence in local governance.
It recognizes the best managed local government units (LGUs) in the region showcasing their achievements in administrative governance, social governance, economic governance, environmental governance, and local legislation.
The DILG- Western Visayas evaluated the province in October, which consisted of site visits to capitol offices, ocular inspections in specific areas, interviews, and checking and validating of documents.
The province was also the champion in the special award for Excellence in Economic Governance and Excellence in Environmental Governance, and 2nd runner-up in the Excellence in Local Legislation.
The province received P20,000 cash for the major award of Best Performing Province while P10,000 cash for the championship in each of the special awards.
Other winners for the Best Performing Province were Province of Capiz is 1st runner-up; and Province of Antique is 2nd runner-up.
Negros Occidental LGUs also won major awards namely, Municipality of Binalbagan, 2nd runner-up for the Best Performing (1st – 3rd Class) Municipality, and Bago City was named 2nd runner-up Best Performing City.
For the Special Awards, Binalbagan was the champion in the Excellence in Social Governance while Bago City was named champion in the Excellence in Economic Governance, and awarded with Most Innovative Best Practice; San Carlos City was also the champion in the Excellence in Environmental Governance and Excellence in Local Legislation.
Also present in the awarding ceremony were DILG Undersecretary for Operations Epimaco Densing III who was the keynote speaker, and DILG- Western Visayas director Anthony Nuyda. (PR)