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Major, minor and special awards await barangay achievers of the Sustainable Development through Meaningful Participation, Accountability, Responsive, Leadership and Transparent (SMART) Barangay Governance Awards on the celebration of barangay month, this coming October.
As stated in Executive Order 94, series of 2025, issued by Mayor Benjamin Magalong last July 29, the program was designed by the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Field Office and the local government of Baguio “purposely to recognize the critical role of the barangay as a basic political unit in enhancing societal well-being” and in “pursuit of good local governance and development.”
“This is done by measuring, assessing and monitoring the performance and service delivery of the barangay governments,” the EO also states. According to Community Affairs Officer III Briccio Domondon of the Special Services Division – City Mayors Office (SSD-CMO), personnel from the different offices have gone on rounds since July to assess and evaluate the coverage of the barangays on the criteria.
The purpose of the award includes the recognition and reward for barangays with excellence using the criteria of the DILG’s Seal of Good Local Governance for Barangay (SGLGB) and Best Performing Barangays; highlight innovations and good practices; strengthen and sustain barangay responsiveness, transparency, accountability and participation towards the long-term vision of “A livable, inclusive and creative city,” by 2043; ensure comprehensiveness and effective delivery of basic services to constituents; and determine performance gaps, links gaps to policy or program intervention and monitor improvements on barangay governance through the Capacity Development (CapDev) for barangays, monitoring and evaluation.
In EO 94, the mayor emphasized that the assessment covers the city’s 128 barangays: in Financial Administration and Sustainability (15%); Disaster Preparedness (20%); Safety, Peace and Order (20%); Social Protection and Sensitivity (25%); Business-Friendliness and Competitiveness (10%); and Environmental Management (10%).
Major awards are the grand champion which is the Most Outstanding Barangay, runner-ups and finalists. Only those that garnered 80% of the overall performance assessment are qualified for the major award category.
Minor awards include outstanding barangays in financial housekeeping, disaster risk reduction and management, most outstanding Lupong Tagapamayapa and runner-ups, special citations to performing Lupons, and most outstanding barangay in peace and order, and drug prevention.
There are also minor awards for barangays outstanding in nutrition, Persons with disability (PWD)-friendly, sustainable local development, reading center, child-friendly, senior citizens organization, women organization, gender and development, health, sanitation and environmental protection and management; business-friendly and competitive.
Special awards are: barangay district in financial administration and sustainability, barangay district in disaster preparedness, safety, barangay district in peace and order, social protection and sensitivity, environmental management, business-friendliness and competitiveness.
Other special awards are Best Performing Barangays under the Kalinisan program; Top 15 barangays in Halina’t Magtanim ng Prutas at Gulay (HAPAG), top 15 brgys in barangay kalinisan day (BarKaDa) and top 15 barangays in barangay road clearing operations (BarCO).
Through a DILG city order, the SMART barangay governance program was institutionalized on Dec. 2023.
The Baguio City Governance Awards Committee (BCGAC) over-all steering committee is composed of Mayor Magalong as Chairperson, Vice-Mayor Faustino Olowan as Vice-Chairperson, the City Director DILG-Baguio City Field Office as co-vice chair, with 23 other offices as members.
A post-evaluation activity and formulation of capacity development happens in October, while the results shall be communicated to all 128 barangays in November. – JGFianza with reports from DILG, SSD-CMO
