Angeles, Valenzuela ink sisterhood agreement

By Carlo Lorenzo J. Datu

Monday 30th of January 2012

ANGELES CITY, Pampanga, Jan. 30 (PIA) -- The cities of Angeles and Valenzuela recently forged a sisterhood accord to foster favorable relations between the two local government units (LGUs) and their constituencies.

Mayors Edgardo Pamintuan of Angeles and Sherwin Gatchalian of Valenzuela signed the memorandum of agreement in a ceremony held at the Sangguniang Panlungsod Session Hall of Angeles.

The pact covers exchange of ideas and resources in various fields that include education, science and technology, culture and arts, tourism, planning and urban development, trade and industry, youth welfare, sports, environmental protection, agriculture, health, social services and disaster mitigation and preparedness.
In statement, Pamintuan said, “The sisterhood agreement stemmed out of a common desire of both cities to devote unquantifiable concern and attention in promoting general welfare of their constituents.”

Pamintuan added, “The fact that Valenzuela is one of the best cities in the country would make a very good sister in governance. Its proximity to Angeles City and our other sister city San Fernando (also in Pampanga) would open up avenues of cooperation.”

The Angeles chief executive disclosed, “We would take their models for industry since this will be a big boost to us. Aside from that, we are looking at the metropolis concept and urban sprawl which they have and what we want Angeles City to be.”

For his part, Gatchalian said, “We are very happy to be sisters with Angeles City. Very soon our teams will exchange visits and study tours to benchmark our best practices.”

Gatchalian said that his city is “looking at adopting models of Angeles City in business and investments. It’s a wonder how they could invite and generate so many investments here. Another aspect we will benchmark will be tourism, culture and heritage preservation.”

In 2010, Valenzuela and Angeles posted the highest and fourth highest score respectively among highly urbanized and independent component cities across the archipelago in the Local Governance Performance Management System (LGPMS) of Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG).

LGPMS is an online tool that assesses LGU performance in the areas such as administrative, social, economic and environmental governance and fundamentals of governance which include transparency, participation and financial accountability.(WLB/CLJD/PIA-3)