Three public sector institutions presented and successfully defended their impact results before an esteemed panel of experts at the Institute for Solidarity in Asia’s (ISA) Public Governance Forum held at the Unilab Bayanihan Center in Pasig City, Philippines on June 14, 2018.
The presenting institutions were the Philippine Children’s Medical Center (PCMC), Bataan General Hospital (BGH), and the City of Sorsogon, Sorsogon. The institutions are partnered with ISA under their flagship program, the Performance Governance System (PGS), to create significant impact in the public sector via governance reform.
During his speech, ISA Fellow Mr. Guillermo Luz, formerly the Private Sector Co-chair at the National Competitiveness Council, stated that “my experience on the PGS, and I’ve said this before: those started with PGS tend to move up. “ As the National Competitiveness Council has been restructured as the Anti-Red Tape Authority and Ease of Doing Business and Anti-Red Tape Advisory Council (effectively after Republic Act No. 11032 was passed last June), Mr. Luz closes his speech by showing his gratitude to ISA for raising the level of competitiveness and performance in the Philippines via the PGS wishing for more institutions to follow suit.
During their revalida, PCMC was lauded by panelists and ISA Trustees Ms. Melinda de Jesus and Mr. Francisco Eizmendi, Jr. for already producing breakthrough results within a short period of time. The hospital, which envisions itself to be the premier Philippine institution in pediatric and perinatal research, training, and service, started their PGS journey in the year 2017. Presenting notable breakthroughs, PCMC executive director Dr. Julius Lecciones, along with the entire PCMC staff were proud and happy to have won the Gold Trailblazer award, an award which acknowledges a partner for getting a score of 89.0 in their revalida.
The City of Sorsogon, Sorsogon and the Bataan General Hospital were also honored for performing beyond better at the public revalidas thus receiving Silver Trailblazer awards.
The Performance Governance System (PGS) consists of four (4) stages, starting with Initiation where the institution presents their carefully crafted roadmap and scorecard, as consulted with their internal and external stakeholders. Partners reach the second stage and become Compliant when the governance roadmap and scorecards are cascaded by the partner institutions to the lower-level units for implementation.  Upon successful strategy implementation and creation of an Office for Strategy Management (OSM), partner institutions reach the Proficiency stage. Finally, organizations that show and practice strategy and governance sustainability are deemed Institutionalized.
The successful institutions were awarded their achieved levels and distinctions at the end of the day. ISA President Ms. Maria Lourdes Fernando, ISA Trustee and Center for Media Responsibility Director Ms. Melinda de Jesus, and Philippine Long Distance and Telecommunications Company (PLDT)
Another public governance forum is slated for October 2018.
