Mandaue wins DILG award, P28M

CEBU, Philippines - The Mandaue City government recently received from DILG Secretary Jesse Robredo “the Seal of Housekeeping” award wherein the cash money that goes with the award will be used to build more school buildings in the city.

The city government of Mandaue along with Cebu City, received the “Seal of Good Housekeeping” award, highly urbanized city category, from Department of Interior and Local Government secretary Jesse Robredo last Friday during the “Tapatan on Disaster Preparedness and Climate Change Adaptation: Call to Action” at the Cebu International Convention Center, Mandaue City.

“The seal is part of the way of life in local governance… the matrix of government system measure... If you have the seal of good housekeeping you can rightfully say, matino ako,” said Robredo during his speech after giving the award which also included 26 municipalities in region 7.

According to Robredo, the seal is part of the requirement from the Department of Finance and the monetary board before a local government unit (LGU) can borrow money from government financial institutions.

Aside from the plaque, the awardee also received P25 million described as Local Government Support Fund (LGSF) and P3 million Performance Challenge Fund (PCF).

Mayor Jonas Cortes said the city has already received the P25 million LGSF and has yet to receive the P3 million PCF.

He said the city is now using the fund to answer the 215-classroom backlog for this year.

So far, the city is undertaking a P27 million 26 classroom school-building project under the Public-Private Partnership with Aboitiz Foundation, Inc. with its 30 percent share of the cost.

But Robredo said the award he recently gave is the bronze type as he introduced more high standards of seal under good housekeeping:  silver type, referring to actual performance other than integrity measures and the gold which requires an integrity or performance, engagement measures, a functioning city or municipal development council and a functioning peace and order council, among others.

Robredo also introduced the “seal of disaster preparedness,” which he said focuses on both institutional and operational capacity.

He said this kind of “culture” should trickle down to the lowest level in the local government unit, the barangay, and community.

Mayor Cortes said he was glad with the award that the city has received recently but the city will continue to aim high in order to get more of the awards Robredo had enumerated. - THE FREEMAN