Tacurong City bags excellence award

TACURONG CITY (PIA) – Mayor Lina Montilla’s first foray into public office kicked off to a promising start after the Local Government Unit (LGU) of Tacurong City bagged the Seal of Excellence Award, a notable feat only six LGUs in the country achieved.

Commissioner Cesar Buenaflor of the Civil Service Commission (CSC) handed over the Seal of Excellence plaque to Montilla in a ceremony held last Dec. 27 in Tacurong City.

The Seal of Excellence is an award given to select LGUs that satisfactorily complied with the provisions of Republic Act No. 9485, otherwise known as the Anti-Red Tape Act (ARTA) of 2007.

In early 2009, the CSC named Tacurong as the Model City for Region XII in the implementation of the ARTA’s provisions, especially in the crafting and implementation of its Citizen’s Charter which informs the citizens about the service entitlements customers have as users of a public service, the frontline services, the standards they can expect for a service (time frame and quality), remedies available for non-adherence to standards, and the procedures, costs and charges of a service.

Tacurong launched its charter on March 31, 2009. From then onwards, former Mayor Lino Montilla ordered a strict observance of the provisions of the Charter.

When Montilla assumed office as the new mayor in July 2010, her first message to the officials and employees was simple: to remind themselves of the SWS and ABC of customer service. SWS stands for serve with a smile and ABC for always be courteous.

The mayor said that these are the basic customer service skills that are very easy to practice but seldom maintained by the service providers. (report from Manila Bulletin)