Sibugay province, 12 municipalities bag Seal of Good Housekeeping

By Noemi B. Edaga

Tuesday 19th of June 2012

ZAMBOANGA CITY, June 19 (PIA) -- Secretary Jesse M. Robredo of the Interior and Local Government today handed down Performance Challenge Fund (PCF) checks to local government units (LGUs) that passed the criteria of the Seal of Good Housekeeping (SGH).

Speaking in Filipino before the local chief executives of the Zamboanga Peninsula, Robredo called on them to formulate and adopt disaster and climate change adaptation action plans for a disaster-free resilient communities, saying “isa lang yung mensahe ng maayos, matino at mahusay na pamamahala, at sa pagamit ng paraang ito maihanda natin ang pamahalaang lokal sa anumang sakuna na posibleng dumating sa kanya (there is only one message of orderly, upright and good governance; and in this manner, we could prepare the local government to any calamity that may possibly happen in the locality).”

Having said this, Robredo called on commitment of the local executives to aggressively scale up interventions to elevate the practice of good governance that values transparency, accountability, participation and performance into an institutionalized status. This message, he says is the Seal of Good Housekeeping.

SGH is an award system designed to recognize exemplary performance of local government units in the provinces, cities, and municipalities.

The Secretary also gave emphasis on the Performance Based Incentive Policy, which provides for an incentive framework to rationalize national governmental transfers to LGU towards improving performance in governance and delivery of basic services. Known as the PCF, it seeks improvement in LGU performance by linking incentives to the achievement of a set performance targets.

LGUs that have qualified for the PCF subsidy intended for development of various projects are the province of Zamboanga Sibugay and the municipalities of Titay, Diplahan, Siay, Tungawan, Buug and Ipil of Zamboanga Sibugay; Manuel Roxas, Polanco and Sergio Osmena of Zamboanga del Norte, and the municipalities of Aurora, Zamboanga del Sur.

DILG-9 Regional Director Paisal Abutazil disclosed that the reward for the LGU PCF recipients are P7 million for the province of Zamboanga Sibugay, and P1 million each of the above-mentioned municipalities.

The awarding of the Seal of Good Housekeeping and the covenant signing on disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation highlighted today’s Tapatan on Disaster Preparedness and Climate Change Adaptation at the Grand Astoria Hotel, this city. (NBE/PIA9)