BALAOAN, La Union – Lady lawyer Aleli U. Concepcion, the incumbent mayor of this town along with municipal officials, receive the 2018 Seal of Good Local Governance (SGLG) award from the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) at the Tent City, Manila Hotel on November 6, 2018.
Concepcion said the award allows 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.
The award is the second SGLG recognition received by the municipality after having won its first in 2015 under the leadership of then Mayor and now Vice Mayor Atty. Al-Fred O. Concepcion.
The SGLG is the highest and most prestigious award bestowed byDILG to the few deserving local government units of the country who have excelled across the seven areas of governance such as, 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,” Concepcion said.
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. Jun Elias/Northbound Philippines News