The two highly urbanized cities in Northern Mindanao – Cagayan de Oro and Iligan – missed the 2023 Regional SubayBAYANi Awards of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) which recognize the performance of the local government units (LGUs) in ensuring the effective implementation of their projects.
THE Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG)-Region 10 displays plaques of recognition for the 2023 Regional SubayBAYANi awardees during the awarding ceremony on November 9. (DILG X Facebook page)
However, El Salvador City in Misamis Oriental ranked first under the top compliant and performing cities category and is also the sole national SubayBAYANi finalist in the region. It was followed by Oroquieta City in Misamis Occidental and Valencia City in Bukidnon.
John Labrador, focal person of the DILG-10 SubayBAYANi, said that even though Cagayan de Oro and Iligan did not make it, this does not mean that they are non-compliant.
“Since part of our criteria is that we only award three cities, so, based on the points they got, there were other three cities that got points higher than them,” Labrador said on Tuesday, November 14, adding that their scores passed the compliance score.
To become an awardee, Labrador said LGU projects from 2018 to 2021 must all be completed. For 2022, the projects must be completed or ongoing, while the 2023 projects of LGUs must all be enrolled in the SubayBAYANi system portal, he added.
The LGUs must also update in the portal on a monthly basis the information, physical, and financial accomplishments of their projects and ensure the completeness of the data, timeliness when it comes to enrolling the projects in the portal and their completion, quality and accuracy, and the projects’ geotagged photos in the system.
Labrador was asked for a list of LGUs that have not met the criteria but could not provide the data as of the moment.
Last July 27, the city council committees on public works, finance, and appropriations conducted a joint hearing to discuss the Commission on Audit’s 2022 report about the delayed infrastructure projects here.
A total of 126 delayed projects were noted in the committee hearing, some of which started in 2018 and 2019, but the majority of them began in 2021 and 2022.
Six municipalities in MIsamis Oriental were awarded as top compliant and performing municipalities, five each from Bukidnon and Lanao del Norte, three from Misamis Occidental, and one municipality from Camiguin.
Mahinog, Camiguin and Matungao, Lanao del Norte received a special award from the Local Government Support Fund (LGSF)-Growth Equity Fund while the municipalities of Impasug-ong, Quezon, and Sumilao in Bukidnon got a special award from the LGSF-Support to Barangay Development Programs.
The DILG-Lanao del Norte bagged the SubayBAYANi Partner Office Award. The DILG offices of El Salvador City, Oroquieta City, and Valencia City were cited as the top performing DILG city offices while 20 DILG municipal offices were feted as top performing municipal offices.
Labrador said that being a SubayBAYANi awardee means that the LGU is properly and effectively implementing their projects. “Therefore, the community would really benefit from the projects that have been implemented,” Labrador added.