P.Noy dares LGUs' legislative councils to act vs. corruption

TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines - President Benigno "P.Noy" Aquino III, in his speech read by DILG Undersecretary Austere Panadero, challenged local legislatures to be transparent in public finances as this is the most solid anti-corruption tool.

P.Noy also urged LGUs to be more proactive in tackling relevant issues and instituting reforms, build capabilities of communities and make these resilient during disasters, and adopt climate change management framework in development planning.

The president further credited the DILG and the Philippine Councilors League in Eastern Visayas for instituting the Local Legislative Awards (LLA) that acknowledge best practices among local legislatures.

Panadero represented P.Noy and DILG Secretary Jesse Robredo who also failed to attend the DILG-PCL Legislative Awards ceremonies held in this city to give recognition to outstanding city and municipal councils in Region 8.

Two local government units of Southern Leyte ruled their respective categories. Maasin City, the only component city to qualify, won this year's title and bagged the Hall of Fame award for winning this category for three consecutive years.

City Mayor Maloney Samaco, Vice Mayor Effie Sabandal, city councilors and staff received the award from DILG Undersecretary Austere Panadero, who represented the invited President P.Noy Aquino and Secretary Jesse Robredo.

Another Southern Leyte town, Macrohon won the regional title for 4th to 6th class towns category, edging out the much-improved Babatngon of Leyte (2nd place), defending titlist Cabucgayan of Biliran (3rd place), and past champion Balangiga of Eastern Samar (4th place).

In the highly urbanized city/independent component city category, this year's champion was Ormoc City of Leyte.

For the 1st to 3rd class towns category, the champion was Catarman in Northern Samar, followed by Hilongos in Leyte (2nd place), and Naval in Biliran (3rd place).

The DILG also conferred to Mayor Gerardo Espina of Kawayan town in Biliran a P1-million grant of the Performance Challenge Fund for the town's passing the Seal of Good Housekeeping criteria. The money would be used for projects addressing targets or the country's commitments to the Millennium Development Goals.

Aside from Panadero, other officials present in the awards rites were Deputy House Speaker Lorenzo "Erin" Tañada III, PCL national president Ronald Carcellar and national chairman Allan Zulueta, Leyte LMP president, Mayor Remedios "Matin" Petilla of Palo in Leyte and DILG-8 director Francisco Jose.

The LLA was first launched in the year 2000 as the Most Outstanding Sangguniang Bayan awards by DILG and PCL. It became a nationwide search in 2006 and named LLA to include cities.

The local legislatures were evaluated, from June 30, 2009 to June 30, 2010 and were judged based on five criteria: 1. Effectiveness of the legislative agenda (20 pts.); 2. effectiveness of the legislative tracking system (25 pts.) 3. availability of legislative documents (10 pts.); 4. efficiency of performance of the council (25 pts.); and 5. quality of office set-up and staff complement (20 pts.) (FREEMAN)