CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – Two national awards and a plaque of appreciation for innovations and excellence in government programs implemented during the incumbency of dismissed Mayor Teddy C. Tumang were bestowed upon the local government of Mexico, Pampanga.
The Department of Interior and Local Government recently awarded to the Mexico LGU the Seal of Good Local Governance (SGLG) and the Best Implementer Award from among locally funded projects completed nationwide in 2022.
The Galing Pook Foundation on Oct. 12 presented a plaque recognizing Mexico LGU for making it to the 17 finalists out of 166 entries that vied for the 10 Outstanding Local Governance Program.
The SGLG, which was the sixth that Mexico LGU obtained since 2017, represented a tool for assessing transparency and accountability in 10 governance areas such as financial administration, disaster preparedness and social protection and sensitivity.
The Best Implementer Award recognized the best practices that have been undertaken for projects in communities.
The Galing Pook Foundation hailed the program “Sustaining a Municipal Government-Funded Community Hospital with a Hemodialysis Center [The Experience of Mexico, Pampanga after the 1991 Devolution].”
The Mexico Community Hospital (MCH), established by Tumang in 2007 and opened in October 2010, is the first public hospital that is operated on local revenues, with the support of public and private sectors, specifically SM Prime Holdings Inc.
Actual LGU budget allocations on MCH reached P980.7 million in 12 years from 2010 to 2022. MCH also raised P683.8 million in grants, donations and endowments from public and private agencies between 2014 and 2022. All these helped ensure the delivery of services as Level 1 general hospital to more than 1.4 million direct beneficiaries in 12 years.
The hemodialysis center, which began with four machines, increased to 49 in 10 years. All authorized by the DOH, these machines enabled the center to serve a total of 45,154 patients in three years until 2022.
“I started the MCH but it was actually a collaboration of the legislative council, municipal health office and other departments, barangay councils and the private sector,” Tumang explained. “I united them to make health an equity in social and economic growth.”
“I am grateful to the DILG and the Galing Pook Foundation for recognizing the efforts of the Mexico LGU and the services it rendered to the people of Mexico. I hope the current administration would sustain these gains and services,” said Tumang. Press release
