Victorias City earned the national distinction as one of the Top 3 Overall Performers in the City Category of the 2025 SubayBAYANI Awards.
The award was received by Rep. Javier Miguel Benitez (Neg. Occ., 3rd District), former Victorias City mayor, and incumbent Mayor Abelardo Bantug III at the Fiesta Pavilion of The Manila Hotel on Wednesday, November 26.
Among the notable initiatives cited was the Victorias City Command and Evacuation Center, a project that began during Benitez’s tenure as mayor and continues to serve as a key infrastructure asset for the city, a press release from Victorias said..
The ceremony was led by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who honored the country’s best-performing LGUs for excellence in transparency, accountability, participatory governance, and evidence-based monitoring of infrastructure projects.
The awards are organized by the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) and guided by DILG Memorandum Circular 2024-121.
These include standardized project documentation, strengthened monitoring and evaluation procedures, and the adoption of digital reporting through SubayBAYAN.
The 2025 SubayBAYANI Awards recognized 126 LGUs nationwide as Exemplars, with only the Top 3 Cities, Top 3 Municipalities, and Top 3 Provinces elevated as Top Overall Performers.
Earlier this month, Victorias was also named a City Exemplar in the regional awards and received the Vision and Motion Award, underscoring the city’s progress in local infrastructure oversight and community-engaged project monitoring.
Launched in 2021, the SubayBAYANI Awards recognize local government units that excel in participatory governance, transparency, citizen engagement, and digital monitoring of infrastructure projects through the Subaybayan ang Proyektong Bayan portal.
The program underscores the national commitment to strengthened local infrastructure governance and corruption-free public service.*