SAN Francisco, a third-class town of about 47,000 people in Camotes Islands, was named the Most Outstanding LGU in Cebu for the sixth straight year.
The municipality received a P1 million cash prize and trophy from the provincial government for topping the annual Our Cebu search for the ideal places to live, work, play, invest, and do business.
Liloan town ranked second. Naga City ranked third. They received cash prizes of P750,000 and P500,000 as well as trophies.
Ranked fourth to 10th were the towns of Dalaguete, Barili, Oslob, Tudela, Medellin, Cordova, and Poro. Each received P300,000 and a plaque.
Each LGU that received a special award went home with P100,000 cash and a plaque.(See Table for list of winners)
Vice Gov. Agnes A. Magpale, Our Cebu program manager, said the program aims to improve the communities and make Cebu a more livable and sustainable province.
The Cebu provincial government and the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. (RAFI) have been implementing the program since 2009.
“It has been a huge task which started in 2009. I am happy with the results and I hope it would be inspiring for other LGUs for them to do more efforts especially those in the lower ranks,” she said.
San Francisco has consistently topped the program’s Livable Scorecard System, which measures an LGU’s performance in terms of green practices, livability, inclusiveness and competitiveness, historical and cultural resiliency, and governance.
San Francisco Mayor Aaron Capao, Jr. credited the townspeople and the municipality’s Purok System for the award.
Capao said the Purok System has empowered the people and allowed the municipal government to implement its livelihood projects and various programs down to the household level. Relief operations after a calamity is also done through the Purok System.
Capao said they will use the prize to help maintain the programs of the municipality.
“Gamiton na namo sa pag maintain sa lungsod ug para mapadayon ang atong mga programa (We will use it to maintain our town and continue our programs),” he said.
RAFI coordinator Constantine “Tats” Samson said most of the 51 towns and cities evaluated using the scorecard have improved.
“From 23 LGUs with below-average rank, we only have two for this year. From 32 LGUs with satisfactory rating, we have 23. From 11 very good LGUs, we now have 18 and from a single excellent municipality, we now have eight,” he said.
He hoped no LGU would have a below-average rank next year.
Among the barangays, Barangay Valladolid in Carcar City was awarded as Most Outstanding, receiving a P500,000 cash prize and a plaque.
Barangay Santiago, San Francisco and Barangay Mainit, Oslob ranked second and third, receiving P400,000 and P300,000, respectively. Those ranked fourth to 10th each received P100,000 cash prize while those ranked 11th to 15th received P75,000 each.