Folk rant on disqualification of LGUs from SGLG award bid

COTABATO CITY ---Twenty one southern local government units were denied of the chance to bag the coveted 2018 Seal of Good Local Governance (SGLG) citation.Eleven of the 21 LGUs received SGLG awards last year while three, that of Parang and Upi towns in Maguindanao and the local government of Lamitan City, each got the same commendationin 2016 and, subsequently, in 2017.Sectors supporting the bid of the 21 LGUs for the 2018 SGLG award were disappointed when the executive department of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao received a memorandum from acting Local Government Secretary Eduardo Año, dated August 2, 2018, citing that the entities cannot be included in the validation process for this year’s contest.The yearly grant of SGLG award to efficient LGUs is an activity of the central office of the Department of the Interior and Local Government.The DILG memorandum stated that the basis for the disqualification of the 21 LGUs were the June 08, 2017 resolutions 2017-335 and 2017-335-A of the National Police Commission that stripped them, along with several others in the autonomous region, of supervisory control over the local police due to unresolved domestic peace and security issues.The resolutions were issued by Napolcom about two weeks after the May 23, 2017 outbreak of hostilities in Marawi City instigated by the Islamic State-inspired Maute terror cell that lasted for five months.The conflict resulted in the deaths of hundreds, dislocated no fewer than 200,000 innocent residents and left several centuries-old Meranao dwelling enclaves in Marawi City in ruins.Six of the municipal governments affected by the DILG memorandum --- Maluso in Basilan, Wao in Lanao del Sur, Guindulungan and Pagalungan, both in Maguindano, Talipao in Sulu and Sibutu in Tawi-Tawi --- are under neophyte mayors not in office yet when their towns have had peace and order problems they inherited from their predecessors.The 21 affected LGUs include the provincial government of Basilan, credited by the Western Mindanao Command and the Regional Police Office-ARMM for helping secure through backchannel dialogues the surrender in the past 24 months of almost 200 hardcore members of the IS-inspired Abu Sayyaf.Functions and powers of the Philippine National Police and the Armed Forces of the Philippines are not devolved to the executive department of ARMM.Local officials told reporters Thursday they could not believe their LGUs could be barred from vying for the 2018 SGLG award based only on the Napolcom resolutions that were for them only consequences of the five-month siege of Marawi City by Maute terrorists.Residents of Maguindanao’s Upi town and Lamitan City, both recipients of the 2016 and 2017 SGLG awards, are using the social media to ventilate sentiments on the issue.In a letter dated August 6, 2018, ARMM’s local government secretary, Noor Hafizullah Abdullah, appealed to Año to reconsider DILG’s action that local executives said had caused demoralization in their ranks.