"OUR awards will inspire us to do better."

This was stressed on Tuesday, December 6, 2022, by Provincial Administrator Atty. Rayfrando Diaz II after the Provincial Government of Negros Occidental bagged the championship in the Excellence in Environmental Governance and runners-up in six other categories during the 2022 Excellence in Local Governance (Excell) Awards held in Iloilo City on Monday.

The province placed first runner-up in Excellence in Economic Governance, Excellence in Local Legislation, Excellence in Administrative Governance, and Excellence in Social Governance.

It also bagged the second runner-up award in Excellence in Public Safety, Peace, and Order.

The Excell Awards, given by the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) in Western Visayas, recognizes local government units (LGUs) for their best practices in Administrative Governance, Social Governance, Economic Governance, Environmental Governance, Local Legislation, and Public Safety, Peace and Order.

Diaz said Negros Occidental received a total of P20,000 as second runners-up in the top performing province and another P10,000 for other areas.

It is the only non-Seal of Good Local Governance (SGLG) awardee who won the Excell awards, he pointed out.

Established by virtue of Republic Act 11292, SGLG is an award, incentive and recognition- based program for LGUs nationwide to continually progress and improve their performance in various areas.

These areas included financial administration; disaster preparedness; social protection and sensitivity programs; health compliance and responsiveness; programs for sustainable education; business friendliness and competitiveness; safety, peace and order; environmental management, tourism, heritage development, culture and arts; and youth development.

"The awards is icing on the cake but the meat is the efficient performance in the delivery of basic services for the Negrenses," the official stressed.