BAGUIO CITY – The search is on for this year’s outstanding citizens of Baguio.
The Society of Outstanding Citizens of Baguio (SOCOB) launched the search last March 11and called on residents to nominate “ordinary people with extraordinary accomplishments.”
“We are looking for ordinary people who for their love of Baguio make it better than it is,” former councilor Edilberto Tenefrancia said. “We believe that our city will be better if its citizens are better and they will be better if they are encouraged to do better.”
One vehicle that provides incentives and encouragement to the people is the annual awards program to recognize citizens with outstanding accomplishments in their fields of endeavor and contributed to the city’s development.
SOCOB members said they improved the rules this year to enhance the selection and judging and to safeguard the integrity of the search.
“We are being challenged to continue to improve the process and we respond to the challenge to once and for all remove the doubts on the way we are conducting the judging,” Mayor Mauricio Domogan, SOCOB chair, said.
The mayor said the selection and judging of the winners are done in two stages: first by the nominating and screening committee which gathers all the nominations and conducts the first round of assessment of the nominees and second by the board of judges which reviews, conducts interviews and finally selects the outstanding citizens based on the criteria.
The mayor said each member of the board of judges independently rates the nominees and all the ratings will be collated by the chairman to compute the average score. The average point must reach the rating earlier set by the committee for the nominee to make it to the selection.
The SOCOB will accept nominations until June 17. Forms are available at the city mayor’s office at City Hall and at the Philippine Information Agency Cordillera at Lualhati barangay or can be accessed online at www.mysocob.gov.ph;
Nominees should be Baguio-born or Baguio-based and have resided in the city for at least ten years.
Nominees should be more than 35 years old and must be known for his integrity and unquestionable good moral character and should demonstrate involvement and achievement in the sector in which he or she is being nominated for.
They should have leadership quality for a meaningful change in the city and must have equally performed important and worthy roles in both private and public sectors.
They must have the determination and persistence to assert the common good for their constituents and must have a worthy sectoral contribution and participation in socio-economic, socio-cultural and educational undertakings.
Nominees should also demonstrate outstanding involvement and achievement in the accomplishment of the vision, mission and goals towards the development of the city as a whole./Aileen P. Refuerzo
