■ Ofelia C. Empian
The province of Benguet was named by the Department of Finance-Bureau of Local Government Finance-Cordillera (DOF-BLGF-CAR) as the top performing province in the Cordillera in terms of its locally sourced revenues after collecting P586 million in 2022.
BLGF-CAR Officer-in-Charge Erwina Grace Morales recently awarded Benguet with a certificate of achievement after the province emerged the top-performing province in the 2022 highest locally-sourced revenues (LSR) category.
“May this recognition continuously drive the provincial government, through the Provincial Treasury Office, to sustain its revenue generation efforts towards better local governance and efficient public service,” the certificate of recognition presented to the province stated.
Gov. Melchor Diclas has acknowledged the collective effort of the people of Benguet which resulted in their success. He also thanked the PTO headed by Imelda Macanes for its continued dedication to improving revenues.
“This milestone is a reflection of the entire province’s commitment to financial excellence and will definitely serve as a motivation to strive even more in local governance,” Diclas said.
To recall, Benguet was recognized the second top-performing local government in local revenue generation nationwide for fiscal year 2020 to 2021 and seventh nationwide for fiscal year 2019 to 2020, both during the first term of Diclas.
In last year’s recognition, Benguet ranked second among all the provinces in the country under the year-on-year growth in LSR category for fiscal year 2021.
Based on the 2021 LSR, Benguet recorded a 67.9 percent increase with P683.65 million compared to the P407.15 million LSR in 2020.
