AND THE winners are…drumroll, please…
La Union, Cavite, Albay, and Ilocos Norte, in the provincial category.
Valenzuela, Makati, Angeles, Taguig, Davao, Laoag, Vigan, and Cabanatuan, in the city category.
Ilagan, Isabela, in the municipality category.
The 13 consistent top performing local government units for the last three years, so announced the Department of the Interior and Local Government, in a press release dated August 14, 2012.
“I extol these local governments for their unwavering commitment in scaling up and maintaining the highest standards of public service delivery in their respective localities.
Their shining examples serve as an inspiration to others to strive hard in the performance of their mandates.”
So hailed Secretary of Interior and Local Government Jesse M. Robredo of the Top 13 who gained the highest scores for the period 2009 to 2011 in the department-administered Local Governance Performance Management System (LGPMS), which, he said, is being done annually.
Expounded the press release: LGPMS is a management and development tool that does not only enable local governments to determine their capabilities and limitations in the delivery of public services, but also provides information on the state of local governance performance and their state of local development.
The DILG Secretary explained that local governments are being assessed and ranked based on performance area index ranging from one to five, with one as the lowest and five as the highest, in the following areas: administrative governance, social governance, economic governance, environmental governance and fundamentals of good governance, which include transparency, participation, and financial accountability.
A team composed of representatives from the national and local governments conducts the evaluation, while results are being validated by civil society organizations to maintain impartiality, he said.
Robredo said that LGPMS topnotchers do not only earn the distinction of being among the best performing LGUs but they will also have a greater chance to be nominated to the Gawad Pamana ng Lahi, which is being conferred to LGUs that advances the tenets of good governance based on certain criteria, including the LGPMS.
Let’s get to that list of cities again. Valenzuela. Makati. Angeles. Taguig. Davao. Laoag. Vigan. Cabanatuan.
There’s something amiss here.
No San Fernando?
Go over the press release again…
For 2011, the following are the top performing provincial, city and municipal governments with their corresponding LGPMS rankings…
Forego all the other categories, my interest is only the…Component Cities—Laoag City (4.99); Naga City (4.93); Vigan City (4.921); Ligao City (4.917); Tagaytay City (4.87); Cabanatuan City (4.86); Dipolog City (4.83); Calamba City (4.82); San Fernando City, La Union (4.81); and La Carlota City (4.79).
Ah, there San Fernando City…La Union!
How could my City of San Fernando, Pampanga be ever left out in any list of top performing LGUs?
Why, isn’t my City of San Fernando the only city in the Philippines enshrined in the Hall of Fame of the Performance Governance System (PGS)?
Why, isn’t my City of San Fernando the avatar, indeed, the very embodiment of the PGS?
Why, isn’t my City of San Fernando the recipient of the Gawad Galing Pook precisely for its most consistent, most efficient, most effective application of the PGS?
Why, isn’t my Mayor Oscar S. Rodriguez – 4th in the 2005 World Mayor Prize – a finalist in the 2012 Lingkod Bayan Awards for his stewardship of the city made most outstanding through the PGS?
Wrong. There’s absolutely something woefully wrong in the DILG assessment.
You cannot do this to my city. You cannot do this to my world-class mayor.
I protest!
Or could it be that my City of San Fernando – with its perfection of the PGS – is already in a league all its own and therefore way above any DILG rating?
Yeah, that could only be the rational explanation. Else, I spit at the DILG.
