Ilocos Norte eyes ‘seal of good local governance’

Leilanie G. Adriano

Staff Reporter

LAOAG CITY—After all the 21 municipalities and two cities of Ilocos Norte have successfully complied with the Department of Interior and Local Government’s “Seal of Good Housekeeping” (SGH), the Ilocos Norte provincial government is ready to face next challenge.

This year, the Capitol’s various departments are eyeing the “Seal of Good Local Governance” (SGLG).

“This is not just a contest or for the sake of compliance. We have to look into the result of compliance,” explained Alelie Tunac, assistant provincial director of the DILG-Ilocos Norte during a briefing on good local governance held at the Provincial Capitol auditorium attended by various department heads of the province.

In an effort to further strengthen accountability and transparency at the LGU level, DILG introduced the Seal of Good Local Governance, an improved version of the Seal of Good Housekeeping.

With the period of evaluation on June 17-18, the DILG assistant provincial director said all local government units here must be ready with the required annual and quarterly documents to be posted online and in a duly assigned transparency board displayed in at least three conspicuous places such as in front of the Provincial Capitol building, Laoag City Centennial Arena and the Gov. Roque B. Ablan Memorial Hospital and Medical Center.

Introduced by the late and former DILG secretary Jesse Robredo in 2011, the SGH monitors and awards LGUs with good performance in internal housekeeping specifically in areas of local legislation, development planning, resource generation, and resource allocation.

This time, the SGH has been expounded to the SGLG with at least six basic elements. These are: 1) good financial keeping, 2) disaster preparedness, 3) social protection, 4) business-friendliness and competitiveness, 5) environment management, and 6) peace and order.

Retaining the SGH module, the SGLG will look into LGUs compliance to good financial housekeeping, disaster preparedness and social protection and at least one from the other assessment areas to be able to become an SGLG recipient.

The SGLG will be implemented this year and will cover all provinces, cities, and municipalities. Qualified LGUs will be awarded annually in October.

Earlier, the SGH was awarded to Ilocos Norte along with at least P7 million that was used in improving the welcome arc and other tourism support facilities at Badoc, the first entry of visitors when traveling by land to Ilocos Norte from Metro Manila.

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