MAYOR SARA Duterte-Carpio has refused to sign a certification that would declare the city’s barangays drug-free, citing that there are no clear standards or parameters for such declaration. The certification is one of the new requirements set by the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) for the annual awarding of the Seal of Good Local Governance. “I refused to sign even if this would affect the assessment for the seal of good governance, basta di lang ta mamakak (let us not lie) or be deceiving in the papers we will submit to them just so we win an award,” Ms. Duterte-Carpio said in an interview last week. The city was up for validation for the seal last week. “We contested this at the level of the DILG secretary because this is an unreasonable requirement,” she said, noting that given the size of each barangay, there was no measurement or criteria provided by the agency as basis for the ‘drug-free’ certification. “If they want to certify the barangay as drug-free then there should be a criteria; the mayor should not (automatically) certify that a barangay is drug-free just because the chief of police and the barangay captain has already given their certification,” she said. Davao City has been ranked third in the highly urbanized category for the 2017 Cities and Municipalities Competitiveness Index Awards, which was announced last week during the 5th Regional Competitiveness Summit. — Carmencita A. Carillo

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