129 LGUs pass child-friendly local governance audit

By: Lilibeth A. French

A TOTAL of 129 or 97 percent of the 133 local government units (LGUs) in Western Visayas passed the Child-Friendly Local Governance Audit (CFLGA) in 2018.

The result of the 2018 CFLGA also showed an increase among LGU passers in the region, from 126 in 2017 to 129 last year.

Raji Alvarado of the Regional Sub–Committee for the Welfare of Children (RSCWC) VI said 100 percent of the LGUs in Western Visayas again went through with the mandatory audit last year, a feat which only a few region in the country maintained.

CFLGA is an annual assessment of the performance of the LGUs in implementing child-friendly programs and services intended to promote and uplift the welfare of children.

It uses indicators covering governance and the four core rights of children, namely survival, development, protection and participation.

In the regional level, the audit is conducted by the Regional Inter-Agency Monitoring Task Force (RITMF) led by the Department of the Interior and Local Government.

Alvarado said the RIMTF and RSCWC endorsed the result of the 2018 CFLGA to the Council for the Welfare of Children (CWC) in September.

The CWC uses the CFLGA result in the conferment of the Seal of Child-Friendly Local Governance (SCFLG) Award and the Presidential Awards for Child-Friendly Municipalities and Cities (PACFMC).

The audit result has also a bearing in LGU’s quest for the Seal for Good Local Governance.

Alvarado said CWC has already confirmed the eligibility of the 129 LGUs to receive the 2018 SCFLG to include all the LGUs from the provinces of Antique, Capiz and Guimaras.

Four LGUs in the region failed to pass some of the performance indicators and were not eligible for the 2018 SCFLG award.

These LGUs are Lezo in the province of Aklan; Sara in Iloilo; and Ilog and Manapla in Negros Occidental.

Alvarado said four LGUs were also named as regional awardees after garnering the highest scores in their respective category.

These are Iloilo City for the highly urbanized category; Silay City for the component city; Hinoba-an, Negros Occidental for the 1st to 3rd class municipalities category; and Sapian, Capiz for the 4th to 6th class municipalities category.

As regional awardees, they will each get P50,000 worth of projects from the RSCWC.

Iloilo City and the municipality of Sapian qualified for the presidential award for the Child-Friendly Municipalities and City. They will each get additional P50,000 projects for children as national qualifiers.

Members of the National Awards Committee are expected to visit the two LGUs for the national validation in July.

Iloilo City will be up against Pasay City, Olongapo City and Cagayan de Oro while Sapian will compete against Sto. Tomas, La Union, Silago, Southern Leyte and Datu Saudi Ampatuan, Maguindanao for the award.

The conferment of the 2018 SCFLG Award for the regional passers will be held during the celebration of the 2019 National Children’s Month this November in the region. (PIA-Iloilo)