ILOILO CITY – Validators of four award giving bodies are expected in this metropolis this August and September following the inclusion of Iloilo City as finalist to the national award this year.
Mayor Jose Espinosa III said that for the first time, this city is joining the search for the National Literacy Award (NLA) of the Department of Education (DepEd) for the local government unit (LGU) highly-urbanized city subcategory.
“We have been judged as one of the five finalists. This look into our projects in education, including alternative learning (system), as long as it provides education,” he said during his regular press conference on Monday.
Among the city’s major literacy and education program initiatives are the alternative learning system, vocational-technical training through the Technical Institute of Iloilo City (TIIC), Iloilo City Community College that provides affordable and quality education to indigent students, and the KAhublagan sa BArangay para sa LApnagon nga KAhandaan (KABALAKA) that serves as a banner project of the city government on disaster risk reduction management (DRRM).
The Iloilo River project initiative is also a finalist to the Galing Pook Awards 2018. The award giving body recognizes innovative practices of LGUs.
City Environment and Natural Resources Office (CENRO) head, Engr. Noel Hechanova, in one of his interviews, said that the cleanup initiatives at the Iloilo River have stirred up more than PHP2 billion worth of projects to be invested in Iloilo City.
Espinosa said Iloilo City was also “short-listed as one of the potential passers” of the 2018 Seal of Good Local Governance Award (SGLG) of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG).
The validation for the NLA will be on August 7; August 8 for the SGLG and August 13-14 for the Galing Pook Award.
The last award giving body is the Most Child-friendly city for highly urbanized city, of which the validation is slated September 23-24.
“We are really (thankful) to our partners because we could not have attained this without the partnership of our private sector, the public, media and government. This is just an additional feather on our cap because we are all doing this to improve the services,” he said. (PNA)
