Balaoan receives highest award from DILG

Manila– Balaoan lady mayor, Atty.Aleli U. Concepcion, and local municipal officials receive the 2018 Seal of Good Local Governance (SGLG) marker from the Department of the Interior and Local Government  (DILG) during ceremonies at the Tent City, Manila Hotel on November 6, 2018 which enables the municipal government to access a P3.2 million allocation from the Performance Challenge Fund to help finance the town’s high impact capital investment projects like water and sanitation system, access roads and health centers.  This is the second SGLG award received by the municipality after having won its first under the leadership of then Mayor and now Vice Mayor Atty. Al-Fred O. Concepcion in 2015.

The SGLG is the highest and most prestigious award bestowed by the Department of the Interior and Local Government to the few deserving local government units (LGU) of the country who have excelled across the seven areas of governance set by DILG this year namely, financial administration; disaster preparedness; social protection; peace and order; business-friendliness and competitiveness; environmental management; and tourism, culture and arts.

“Hard work finally paid off after all the efforts and meaningful programs and projects undertaken by the local government with the help of the entire community in my second year in office,” Balaoan lady Mayor Concepcion said.

Mayor Concepcion said that this achievement is a product of the collective efforts of all the men and women from the local government, the different barangays and other community members who joined together to plan, develop and implement the proper projects, programs and activities that contributed to attaining the desired goals on key governance areas following the criteria set by DILG this year.

“I was challenged to work for this award because my father, who is my immediate predecessor inspired me to aim for this same award”, she said.

Balaoan joins the roster of nine SGLG awardees of La Union for 2018 that includes the provincial government, city government of San Fernando and the municipalities of San Gabriel , Agoo , Aringay, Caba, Rosario and Santo Tomas. Out of the 1,682 assessed LGUs this year, only 263 substantially met the 2018 SGLG criteria all over the country that included 207 municipal governments, 39 city governments and 17 provincial governments.

The SGLG is a progressive assessment system designed by the government through  DILG to give distinction to remarkable local government performance across seven key governance areas. It continuously recognizes local governments by primarily looking at their existing structures, systems and processes which promote transparency, integrity and quality of service delivery. It also looks into government accountability by integrating into its assessment tools a measure about the effects of local actions and interventions.

This year, DILG raised the bar of governance by adopting the ALL-IN principle wherein a local government must pass all assessment areas compared to last year’s 4 + 1 principle.

“This is just a start of more hard work ahead because the challenge of maintaining this award in the years to come has become doubly harder because of DILG’s constant desire to raise the bar in the quality performance of all local government units in the country,” the lady town mayor said.

Balaoan lady mayor Atty. Aleli U. Concepcion beams with pride as she shows the 2018 Seal of Good Local Governance marker that was awarded by the DILG to the Municipality of Balaoan at the Manila Hotel.