Skip to main content

Ilocos Norte eyes ‘seal of good local governance’

Leilanie G. Adriano
Staff Reporter

LAOAG CITY—After all the 21 municipalities and two cities of Ilocos Norte have successfully complied with the Department of Interior and Local Government’s “Seal of Good Housekeeping” (SGH), the Ilocos Norte provincial government is ready to face next challenge.

This year, the Capitol’s various departments are eyeing the “Seal of Good Local Governance” (SGLG).

“This is not just a contest or for the sake of compliance. We have to look into the result of compliance,” explained Alelie Tunac, assistant provincial director of the DILG-Ilocos Norte during a briefing on good local governance held at the Provincial Capitol auditorium attended by various department heads of the province.

In an effort to further strengthen accountability and transparency at the LGU level, DILG introduced the Seal of Good Local Governance, an improved version of the Seal of Good Housekeeping.

With the period of evaluation on June 17-18, the DILG assistant provincial director said all local government units here must be ready with the required annual and quarterly documents to be posted online and in a duly assigned transparency board displayed in at least three conspicuous places such as in front of the Provincial Capitol building, Laoag City Centennial Arena and the Gov. Roque B. Ablan Memorial Hospital and Medical Center.

Introduced by the late and former DILG secretary Jesse Robredo in 2011, the SGH monitors and awards LGUs with good performance in internal housekeeping specifically in areas of local legislation, development planning, resource generation, and resource allocation.

This time, the SGH has been expounded to the SGLG with at least six basic elements. These are: 1) good financial keeping, 2) disaster preparedness, 3) social protection, 4) business-friendliness and competitiveness, 5) environment management, and 6) peace and order.

Retaining the SGH module, the SGLG will look into LGUs compliance to good financial housekeeping, disaster preparedness and social protection and at least one from the other assessment areas to be able to become an SGLG recipient.

The SGLG will be implemented this year and will cover all provinces, cities, and municipalities. Qualified LGUs will be awarded annually in October.


Earlier, the SGH was awarded to Ilocos Norte along with at least P7 million that was used in improving the welcome arc and other tourism support facilities at Badoc, the first entry of visitors when traveling by land to Ilocos Norte from Metro Manila.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Empanada festival: A celebration of good taste and good life

By Dominic B. dela Cruz & Leilanie G. Adriano Staff reporters BATAC CITY—If there is one thing Batac is truly proud of, it would be its famous empanada-making business that has nurtured its people over the years. Embracing a century-old culture and culinary tradition, Batac’s empanada claims to be the best and tastiest in the country with its distinctive Ilokano taste courtesy of its local ingredients: fresh grated papaya, mongo, chopped longganisa, and egg. The crispy orange wrapper and is made of rice flour that is deep-fried. The celebration of this city’s famous traditional fast food attracting locals and tourists elsewhere comes with the City Charter Day of Batac every 23 rd  of June. Every year, the City Government of Batac led by Mayor Jeffrey Jubal Nalupta commemorate the city’s charter day celebration to further promote its famous One-Town, One Product, the Batac empanada. Empanada City The Batac empanada festival has already become an annua

PIDS expert says income tax cuts justified; warns gov’t of revenue loss

Proposals to amend the personal income tax schedule appear to be well-justified. However, these proposals should include measures that will allow government to recover the revenue loss from lower income taxes. Dr. Rosario Manasan, senior research fellow of state think-tank Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS), said at a seminar sponsored by the Philippine Senate, that government should look for new revenue measures to compensate for the projected revenue loss that will arise as a result of the implementation of any of the various proposals to restructure the personal income tax. Currently, there are several income tax reform proposals pending in both houses of Congress. All of them, according to Dr. Manasan, have the same objective of addressing the phenomenon of bracket creep, which results from “non-indexation to inflation of personal income tax brackets”. Simply put, bracket creep occurs when employees’ income increases over time as a result of inflation. Th

PGIN honors Ilocano heroes of past, present through Heroes Walk

SPO1 Allan Lampitoc Franco of Banna, Ilocos Norte and PO2 Jovalyn D. Lozano of Adams, Ilocos Norte receive a resolution of commendation, a certificate of college scholarship grant to their family members and a P20,000 cash incentive each from the Provincial Government of Ilocos Norte represented by Governor Imee R. Marcos and Vice Governor Angelo M. Barba in recognition of their bravery and heroic acts in the Mamasapano clash in Maguindanao on January 25. Mr. Franco and Mr. Lozano were recognized on March 10 in time for the unveiling of the second batch of Ilocano heroes at the Heroes Walk located along the Sirib Mile in Laoag City.  (Lei Adriano) By Jennifer T. Pambid PGIN-CMO In honor of the heroes who brought freedom, fame and glory to the province as well as to the country in the past century, the Provincial Government of Ilocos Norte (PGIN) through the Education Department and Sirib Youth Office launched the second batch of Ilocano Heroes Walk on March 10, 2015.