CLARK FREEPORT — “We are not competing against each other.”
This was how Lubao Mayor and Pampanga Mayors League President Mylyn Pineda-Cayabyab summed up the strategy Pampanga applied to help many towns and cities qualify for the 2017 Seal of Good Local Governance (SGLG) award.
Cayabyab was invited to share Pampanga’s best practices that led 13 municipalities, two cities and the provincial government to win the Seal for this year.
The PML president said constant communication and consultation among all the mayors and the Department of Interior and Local Government bolstered Pampanga’s ranking among the provinces with the most number of SGLG haul for the year.
Lubao, for one, has won its second SGLG award in the same number of years.
At the onset of the pre-qualification, Cayabyab said, the PML held regular meetings to update mayors on the requirements for the award.
“Those who are lagging behind were given particular attention. [DILG] Provincial Director Myrvi Fabia was always around to provide assistance for mayors to comply with the SGLG,” she said.
Pampanga made a big leap in the number of SGLG qualified local government units since the implementation of the award in 2015 under the then Seal of Good Housekeeping title where nine LGUs in the province qualified.
In 2016, the number of LGUs bagging the recognition ballooned to 13.
This year the winning LGUs include: Provincial Government of Pampanga, city governments of San Fernando and Mabalacat, and towns of Lubao, Guagua, Floridablanca, Porac, Macabebe, San Luis, Sto. Tomas, Masantol, Arayat, Sta. Ana, Bacolor, Mexico and Magalang.
“Some other LGUs would have qualified but they did not meet the deadline for them to qualify. But, all the requirements for the award are all doable tasks. It’s just a matter of working promptly,” Cayabyab added.
Next year, she vowed, more LGUs of Pampanga will join the roster of SGLG recipients.
“We are not doing this only for the award but to make sure that we, the LGUs, are performing our duties,” the mayor said.