“The honor of being the top governor in Western Visayas is not mine alone but of the entire Iloilo Provincial Government… Our work is not the work of one department alone but of everyone.”
This was stressed by Gov. Arthur “Toto” Defensor Jr. during the flag ceremony this morning after it was announced that he had emerged as the undisputed “Top Governor” in the region in the “Boses ng Bayan” survey.
The “Boses ng Bayan” survey, conducted by the RP-Mission and Development Foundation Inc. (RPMD) from February 25 to March 8, had 10,000 randomly selected registered voter respondents with a sampling margin of error of ±1 percent with a 95% confidence level.
“But the challenge now is how to keep the standards, that is why we have instituted the clustering of our departments so we can completely and comprehensively respond to all of our people’s concerns,” he said.
Defensor recently issued Executive Order No. 155 establishing five department clusters in the Capitol, namely the Civil Defense Cluster, the Economic and Finance Cluster, the Agriculture and Food Security Cluster, the Health and Social Services Cluster, and the Environment and Climate Change Adaptation Cluster.
The aim of this move is “to fulfill the mandate of RA 7160 (Local Government Code of 1991) and for a coordinated and focused policy and program formulation and implementation to achieve the goals of MoRProGRes Iloilo.”
MorProGRess Iloilo, which stands for a “Movement for a Robust, Progressive and Globally competitive and Resilient Province of Iloilo,” is envisioned to serve as a vehicle to achieve the province’s social justice agenda.
Each cluster is tasked to formulate and determine the policies, programs and actions for recommendation to the governor on matters in their respective areas of governance, towards the fulfilment of the objectives of MoRProGRes Iloilo.
“With the clusters, we will continue to be No. 1 and we will not stop improving,” Defensor said. “We are not effective if we are not helping each other.”
Defensor earned what the RPMD described as “an exceptional score of 92.36%,” besting the five other governors in the region with Aklan’s Joen Miraflores and Negros Occidental’s Bong Lacson statistically tying for the second spot, scoring 87.25% and 86.81%, respectively.
Rhodora Cadiao of Antique placed third with a score of 82.16%, Fredenil Castro of Capiz earned 77.40% and landed fourth, while JC Rahman Nava of Guimaras came in fifth with an approval rating of 73.69%.
