After a series of extensive assessment, the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) has released the official list of local government units (LGUs) that bagged the Seal of Good Local Governance (SGLG) for the year 2016.

Following the result of the national validation, eight (8) LGUs of Region IX bagged the 2016 Seal of Good Local Governance namely, the Province of Zamboanga del Norte, Zamboanga City and the Municipalities of Piñan, Zamboanga del Norte, Municipalities of Bayog, Dumingag and Molave of Zamboanga del Sur and the Municipalities of Imelda and Tungawan of Zamboanga Sibugay.

Provinces, Cities and Municipalities in all the 16 Regions in the country, including the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and the newly created Negros Island Region, respectively, were subjected to assessment by the SGLG Regional Assessment Teams headed by the DILG as implementing agency with partners, National Government Agencies (NGAs) and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) as members.

Result of the Regional Assessment, as calibrated, was then forwarded to the DILG Central Office through the Bureau of Local Government Supervision (BLGS) for validation.

The Local Chief Executives of the recipient LGUs were formally informed of the 2016 SGLG results through a letter signed by DILG Secretary Ismael D. Sueno.

As a mechanism to track LGU performance, the SGLG is an awards and incentive program of the Department designed to recognize and incentivize exemplary performance of LGUs in various areas of local governance anchored on the values of transparency and accountability.

To be an SGLG recipient, an LGU must pass the three (3) Core Assessment Areas namely, Good Financial Housekeeping, Social Protection and Disaster Preparedness and at least pass one (1) of the three (3) essential areas such as Peace and Order, Environment Management and Business Friendliness and Competitiveness criteria.

For his part, DILG IX Regional Director Paisal O. Abutazil expressed that SGLG is a good strategy to encourage the LGUs to improve and enhance their performance in the area of governance.

“The SGLG was introduced to provide greater challenge for LGUs to level-up their governance practices based on a certain set of standards in order to provide better, quality, effective and efficient service delivery,” Director Abutazil said. 

Director Abutazil further pointed out that the results of this year’s SGLG will definitely serve as motivation for other LGUs to draw inspiration from in order to take their respective local governance practices and strategies to a whole new level.     

Seal-recipient LGUs are entitled to access the Performance Challenge Fund (PCF) intended for development projects in their respective provinces, cities and municipalities and likewise, provides the opportunity to avail of other national program windows and other big-ticket programs, among others.

The eight (8) Region IX LGUs that bagged the 2016 Seal were among the 306 LGUs nationwide which include 43 provinces, 51 cities and 212 municipalities, respectively.

The formal awarding ceremonies were conducted on October 27, 2016 in Pasay City attended with the Local Chief Executives of the recipient LGUs, DILG national and regional officers, among others.The activity highlighted the culmination of the month-long celebration of the Local Government Month and the 25^th Anniversary of the Local Government Code of 1991.

The Seal was first introduced in 2010 as Seal of Good Housekeeping (SGH) and later scaled-up to what is now known as SGLG.