By Wilson J Hormeguera

Xavier University - Governance and Leadership Institute (XU-GLI) facilitated the benchmarking exercise on January 19-23 for the local officials of Initao with the two nationally awarded local government units (LGUs) in the Philippines—Guimbal and New Lucena, both in Iloilo Province.

Guimbal received the Hall of Fame Award for “Most Business-Friendly in the Country” while New Lucena earned the “Most Child-Friendly Municipality.” Both LGUs are governed by lady mayors: Guimbal Mayor Christine Garin and New Lucena Mayor Liecel Seville.

Both LGUs also received various national awards aside from the Hall of Fame. Guimbal is the National Winner for Gawad Kalasag (Disaster Preparedness) and New Lucena was hailed as the National Model for Non-Handicapping Environment.

XU-GLI director Dr Dixon Yasay served as the lead facilitator for the preparatory work in formulating the benchmarking framework which ensures its quality and achieves the desired objective: to learn from the best LGUs in the country.

Initao is aiming to improve their local revenue generation by making the LGU attractive to local investors and give priority on improving the services for children, a good investment to address the issue on poverty.

Initao Mayor Gogoy Acain believes that poverty reduction is a strategic issue which requires long-term solutions. Investing on improved services for children that will protect their rights and advance their welfare is primordial concern of Initao today.

Both champion mayors were the main resource persons during the actual visit from January 21 to 22. Department heads and other local officials of the champion LGUs were also present and exchanged insights with the visiting officials from Initao.

The benchmarking ended with the re-entry action planning for both the immediate and long-term actions that Initao must undertake after the visit.