By Dominic B. dela Cruz
Staff reporter
Batac City—For the second time, the Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP) here has won the regional Local Legislative Awards (LLA), thus would again represent the Ilocos region in the national LLA search.
Batac officials, led by Mayor Jeffrey Jubal Nalupta, received the trophy and plaque of recognition for winning the regional LLA search. They received the trophy and plaque during the End Term National Assembly of the Philippine Councilors’ League (PCL) in Iloilo City on March 8.
In winning the regional award, Batac’s council bested Laoag in the provincial level; and San Fernando, Dagupan, Alaminos, Vigan, Urdaneta, San Carlos and Candon Cities in the regional level under the component city category.
Batac has already won the provincial LLA search thrice and was a regional winner in 2012.
Batac Vice Mayor and council presiding officer Ronald Allan M. Nalupta thanked all the agencies involved in the evaluation for on what the Sangguniang Panlungsod has accomplished in past 3 years.
Mr. Nalupta opted not to attend the awarding because the mayor and majority of the city council members were already there.
He said his office prepared for the evaluation by complying with all the recommendations and suggestions made during the last LLA evaluation.
The vice mayor thanked all the council members and their secretariat headed by council secretary Gladys Lagura for the full support and cooperation. He also thanked Batac’s interior and local government officer Janet Duarte for her supervision.
He stressed that their being a national LLA finalist is source of pride not only for the council members but also for the whole city and its residents.
Batac councilor Winet Quidang, who attended the awarding, related that according to the national evaluators, there was a “very close fight” with all the regional winners.
Emerging as national LLA champions are Kabankalan City for component city category; Quezon City for highly urbanized city; Oton, Iloilo for 1st– 3rd class municipality; and Mina, Iloilo for the 4th– 6th class municipality.
The award was established by the PCL in partnership with the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG0 to recognize the exemplary performance of sanggunians for legislating measures that help build the foundation of meaningful local administration and development.
This last LLA evaluation covered performances for the period July 1, 2013 to June 30, 2015.
LLA aims to highlight innovations and excellence in the legislative process with the end view of inspiring other local legislators to perform better and institutionalize a system of recognition to the SP and SB for exemplary performance.
Criteria include the effectiveness of the legislative agenda; availability of legislative documents; efficiency of performance of the sanggunian; quality of office set-up and staff complement; legislative citations and awards; and capacity development for legislators and staff.