LEGAZPI CITY --- The National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB), the government arm that measures economic, administrative and demographical perform-ances, has listed four provinces in Bicol as among the 10 worst in governance in 2005.  

        The NSCB’s 2005 survey, conducted in collaboration with the Human Development Network, measured the good governance index (GGI) of 79 provinces all over the country which includes aspects of economic, political and administrative governance.

        The GGI aims to provide “voters’ index to assess whether good governance principles are advocated not only on paper but in fact are put into actual practice, i.e. whether, using the results of the 2007 elections, the voters used performance as basis in the choice of their leaders.”

        Dr. Romulo Virola, secretary general of the NSCB, explained in an abstract: “The statistics on the chartered cities which are financially and administratively independent from the provinces had also been excluded from the computations of the GGI for the province to enhance the validity of the GGI as a measure of performance of the governor.”

        Virola was here Saturday in a sharing session with selected journalists regarding indicators of millennium development goals (MDG) of the United Nations targeted for accomplishment in 2015.

        The most recent survey of the NSCB on GGI, after the first survey in 2003, ranked Camarines Sur, Masbate, Albay and Camarines Norte in the 10 worst provinces in GGI. Likewise, the provinces of Maguindanao, Lanao Del Norte, Zamboanga Del Sur, Surigao Del Sur and Zamboanga Sibugay were among the provinces worst governed.

        Virola emphasized the situation at present could be different since some of the incumbent governors in the 2003 and 2005 survey had been defeated even as others were reelected.

         The NSCB produces an overall ranking of the provinces based on the Human Development Index (HDI) developed by the United Nations Development Programme which integrated ranking of the provinces in the aspects of economic, political and administrative governance.

        Ranked in the 10 best governed provinces in the Philippines based on the GGI of 2005 are the provinces of Batanes, Rizal, Benguet, Siquijor, Bulacan, Apayao, Laguna, Cavite, Nueva Vizcaya and Pampanga.

        Comparing the provinces’ GGI of 2005 with the results of the 2007 elections, it showed that three of the governors of 10 best governed provinces in the Philippines lost in the gubernatorial race while “eight of the worst still won.”

         On one hand, the governors of Batanes, Benguet and Pampanga whose provinces were classified in the 10 best governed in 2005 lost in the 2007 elections, according to the comparative data of the NSCB.

         On the other hand, the governors of Maguinadanao, Camarines Sur, Masbate, Camarines Norte, Surigao Del Sur, Zambaonga Del Sur, Zamboanga Sibugay and Lanao Del Norte, whose provinces were classified in the 10 worst governed provinces in 2005, were reelected in the 2007 elections.