• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
Kabankalan City Mayor Benjie Miranda yesterday brushed aside criticism for being the mayor of the only city in Negros Occidental that failed to get a 2024 Seal of Good Local Governance.
Miranda claimed that Kabankalan City in fact won so many awards, among them, being among Top 10 most improved component cities in the Philippines, Top 8 most competitive city in Visayas, and its Local Civil Registrar being cited as the Most Outstanding Local Registrar in the Philippines.
However, he did not elaborate where exactly the awards came from.
The 2024 SGLG passers, aside from Negros Occidental and Bacolod City, are the cities of Victorias, Bago, Cadiz, Escalante, Himamaylan, La Carlota, Sagay, San Carlos, Silay, Talisay, and Sipalay, as well as municipalities of E.B. Magalona, Hinigaran, Ilog, Isabela, La Castellana, and Manapla.
The SGLG is conferred by the DILG to local government units that adhere to performance criteria on good financial housekeeping, disaster preparedness, social protection for the basic sector, business-friendliness and competitiveness, environmental management, and law and order, and public safety.
Thirteen other towns in Negros Occidental also failed to get the Seal of Good Local Governance (SGLG) this year.
This is the second time that Kabankalan City failed to make it to the list of SGLG recipients.
The SGLG seal is an incentive program by the Department of Interior and Local Government that recognizes and rewards local government units for “excellent service and high standards of governance.”*
