A total of 69 barangays in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) passed the 2023 Seal of Good Local Governance for Barangay (SGLGB), according to the the National Barangay Operations Office (NBOO) of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG).

In a statement, the NBOO noted that only 1,028 barangays or 2.59 percent of the 39,623 barangays assessed nationwide were hailed as national passers in the 2023 SGLGB with the DILG-CAR endorsing 99 potential passers to the National Assessment Team, of which 69 were conferred the coveted seal.

The City of Baguio posted the highest number of passers in the region with 35 barangays, followed by the Province of Apayao with 15, the Province of Abra with 12, the Province of Benguet with three, the Province of Ifugao with two, and the Provinces of Kalinga and Mountain Province with one barangay each.

The DILG explained that the SGLGB is a performance assessment and recognition system initiated by the department that aims to distinguish the remarkable performance of the barangays under a given set of governance areas. 

“This program is borne from the SGLG for provinces, cities and municipalities which is regarded as the most prestigious recognition conferred by the DILG to LGUs in the country,’’ the DILG added.

The SGLGB assessment criteria applies the “3+1 Principle” where a barangay must pass all three core governance areas namely financial administration and sustainability, disaster preparedness, and safety, peace, and order; and at least one essential governance area i.e. social protection and sensitivity, business-friendliness and competitiveness, and environmental management to ultimately clinch the seal.

DILG-CAR Regional Director Araceli A. San Jose commended the 69 national passers for upholding the tenets of good local governance at the barangay level and cited their satisfactory compliance to public accountability and reform requirements.

“The SGLGB is a reflection of our barangay’s commitment to delivering quality services to our kababayans (fellowmen). We recognize their pivotal role in implementing the various programs of the national government at the local level and this emphasizes further the need for us to ensure their optimal performance,” San Jose said.

San Jose also disclosed that the results of the 2023 SGLGB should help the DILG magnify the performance gaps in the 1,176 barangays in the Cordilleras citing their potential capacity development needs.

She added that the DILG-CAR is bent on studying the overall results of the 2023 assessment to identify key barangay governance areas and performance indicators that need improvement.

“We have directed our personnel in the Regional Office and Field Operating Units (FOUs) to analyze the SGLGB data so that we can use these insights to develop responsive capacity development interventions for our barangays,” San Jose stated.