“A moment to shine, a night to remember and cherish…”

This one-liner has become the byword among the attendees to the first-ever awards ceremony for DILG XII’s top-performing employees and personnel.

Dubbed as the “GEMS for DILG Dose: Praise Awards,” it became one of the anticipated big events for the first quarter of 2022 which highlighted the hardwork, dedication and perseverance of DILG Rehiyon Dose’s powerhouse of personnel and top-level managers.

GEMS, which stands for Governance Exemplars for Meaningful Service, is an initiative of the DILG XII under its Program on Awards and Incentives for Service Excellence (PRAISE). It gives due recognition to all the regional and field officers who have shown outstanding performance in carrying out the mandate of the office.

In 2021, a similar awarding ceremony was held in March 30, which also marked the launching of the said program of DILG XII. Nominees and awardees were given elegant trophies with corresponding incentives. The GEMS awardees automatically represented DILG XII in the CapDev Ace Awards.

The Regional Management, with its Program on Awards and Incentives for Service Excellence (PRAISE) Committee, has leveled-up the granting of incentives and rewards to high performing provincial/ city office, division, section/ unit, and personnel in the region through the GEMS of DILG XII Awards.

The DILG Rehiyon Dose Management had adopted Circular No. 2017-15 dated 16 May 2017 entitled ‘Enhanced DILG Program on Awards and Incentives for Service Excellence (DILG PRAISE)’ and Memorandum Circular No. 2019-146 dated 30 August 2019 [Revised Guidelines on the Capacity Development Awards for Catalysts of Excellence (CapDev ACE)] to ensure that the awards scheme is aligned to DILG’s national standards on employee’s rewards and incentives system.

DILG Regional Director Josephine Cabrido-Leysa, CESO III have been consistent in her drive to build up the human resource component of DILG Rehiyon Dose. “Since 2019, I have always been clear about this: ‘the right person doing the job right can get things done right,’ the director emphasized.

RD Leysa expresses hope that through the GEMS awarding ceremony, many of the field and regional office personnel will become more motivated and inspired and end up as nominees themselves.

The Black-tie Affair was well-attended activity, with personnel coming in from the region’s four provinces (Cotabato, Sarangani, South Cotabato and Sultan Kudarat) and one highly-urbanized city (General Santos).

The awards night was made more special with the presence of Usec. Epimaco V. Densing, III, the Undersecretary for Operations of the DILG, who was the guest of honor. In his message, he lauded the efforts of DILG XII under RD Leysa, because of the continuous introduction of innovative ideas and relevant schemes which put emphasis on the Region’s manpower complement. He later on rallied a call for all the DILG XII workforce to ‘learn to love our country again.’

The Categories of Awards for the GEMS for DILG Dose: Praise Awards are the following:

•          BEST CITY/MUNICIPAL LOCAL GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS OFFICER

•          BEST PERFORMING TECHNICAL PERSONNEL

•          BEST PERFORMING ADMINISTRATIVE PERSONNEL

•          MOST OUTSTANDING (Highly Urbanized City) HUC/ PROVINCE

Winners in the various categories received special plaques and cash awards.

A special award was also given to the evening’s best-dressed darlings of the crowd, the LADY OF AND GENTLEMAN OF THE NIGHT.