After an in depth study of its capabilities, the city has improved its capacity to render basic services and promote good governance to its constituents.

This was shown during the recent Utilization Conference for the Local Governance Performance Management System (LGPMS) for profile year 2011 held on April 23, 2012 at the Shanghai Palace Restaurant, Balibago, this city.

 According to Mayor Edgardo Pamintuan, while awards and citations “make the city proud and boost our bragging rights”, the local government shouldn’t be complacent and continue to improve its stand against other competing local government units.

“Whether or not there is an award or reward at stake, we should still strive to deliver the best services to our people,” Pamintuan said.

At the same time, he lauded the efforts of the Department of Interior and Local Government for the staunch implementation of the LGPMS, adding that it is an effective tool to assess the LGUs strengths and capitalize on their gaps & weaknesses.
“I believe that, through the LGPMS, we have achieved a higher level of cooperation among all our program units, particularly in delivering our ‘Contract with the Angeleños’ commitments,” the mayor said.

“If you want to start good governance, ibigay mo yung nararapat sa mamamayan. Let us continue doing the things that benefit our constituents – and continue improving the implementation of these activities as well”, Pamintuan added.

For her part, Vice Mayor Vicky Vega-Cabigting affirmed the statement of the mayor in that, the city, despite its great performance in the previous year “shouldn’t rest on its laurels.”  Vega-Cabigting said that good governance and transparency always start when the people approach the local government and transact with it. “Let us make the people feel that they are always welcome,” the vice mayor said.

Lerrie S. Hernandez, Monitoring and Evaluation Division OIC-Chief of the DILG – Region III said that she is proud to say that Angeles City rigidly follows and implements the guidelines, recommendations and provisions stated by the LGPMS. She also recognizes the fact that Angeles is first to have its Utilization Conference this year, which manifests the local government’s prompt compliance with the self-assessment tool.

During the conference, Engineer David D. David, head of the City Planning and Development Office, stated that the final score for profile year 2011 reached 4.88 out of 5. This score is .12 points higher than what the city acquired back in 2010 which was 4.76. David confirms that the increase can be attributed to the improvements done by the local government in providing quality health care services and advocating several environmental causes, especially on the establishment of the Angeles City Renal Care Unit and the monthly conduct of the Sapang Balen clean-up drive respectively.

The LGPMS is a self-diagnostic tool that can be used by the management specifically in planning, budgeting, legislation and monitoring and evaluation of the performance and productivity of the various development offices/ service providers in order to identify areas for decisions and actions.

The tool allowed Angeles City to land 4th among 122 highly urbanized cities and was awarded by the DILG with the Seal of Good Housekeeping for the city’s exemplary performance in governance, transparency and accountability.