Philippines: Albay province wins good governance award
Legazpi City (30 January) -- Albay province receive another feather in its cap for innovative approaches in local governance, a recognition conferred by the United National Development Programme (UNDP) and the Dutch development agency.
The recognition came along after the province scored in the 2008 Galing Pook Award (GPA) besting 19 other local government units (LGU) across the country.
Albay Gov. Joey Salceda said the province after being named as one of the Top 10 Outstanding Governance Programs in the search for Galing Pook 2008, was also selected as one of the 4 awardees for the Special Citation on Local Capacity Inventive Mechanism (LoCIM) for Good Governance sponsored by the UNDP/Dutch SNV.
The agency award was given to Albay province for its innovative approaches in institutionalizing incentive mechanism to efficiently deliver services.
Salceda quoting from a letter of Pamela Grafilo, Galing Pook Foundation Program Officer for Awards and Promotion, said the UNDP-Dutch Award is in line with GPA for Albay for institutionalizing the Albay Public Safety and Emergency Office (APSEMO), the first of its kind created in the country.
The APSEMO was created primarily to serve as the technical and administrative arm of the Provincial Disaster Coordinating Council (PDCC) due to the geographic and geologic location of the province highly vulnerable to various types of natural hazards like typhoons, flood, mud/debris flows, storm surges, tsunami, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions.
The creation of the APSEMO resulted in attaining the "Zero Casualty" objective, a pre-emptive evacuation system, the integration of Disaster Risk Reduction Plan in the Comprehensive Land Use Plan of the province consistent with five priorities for action under the Hyogo Framework for Action.
Salceda said "this is where we bested other areas in terms of capability in meeting disaster challenges and mitigation measures."
The GPA awarding ceremonies will be held on February 11 this year in Malacañang with President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo conferring the plaque of recognition for this year's Top 10 Outstanding Local Governance Programs.
Albay was among the 138 LGUs that qualified to the GPA program application. Of the qualifiers only 19 came out as finalists and Albay garnered the top place. And for the UNDP award Albay was among the 4 awardees.
The GPA was launched in 1993 as a pioneering program to recognize and promote innovation and excellence in local governance and in support of the Local Government Code.
GPA aims to search, select and recognize outstanding programs of local governments and translating the winning programs into resource materials and knowledge products for dissemination, promotion and replication.
To win a GPA an LGU should have a seal of good housekeeping and in setting better standards of excellence in local governance.
For 14 years, the GPA, considered the "Oscars" of the local governance awards, has received a total of 2,847 applications from 662 LGUs and has awarded 215 exemplary local government programs from 145 LGUs.
This is the first time that the province Albay garnered the top Galing Pook Awardee. Naga City won the GPA Award for Continuing Excellence (ACE) for winning three Top Ten Outstanding Local Governance Program Award. The town of Irosin in Sorsogon also won a Galing Pook award in the 90's. (PIA)