The University of Northern Philippines sends its congratulatory greetings to UNP alumnus, and the former mayor of the Heritage City of Vigan, Hon. Juan Carlo S. Medina for being awarded the 2022 Gawad Jesse M. Robredo.

The award honors exceptional mayors who engage in excellent governance. This meritorious recognition given by the Jesse M. Robredo Foundation (JMRF), through the Gawad award, seeks to motivate other leaders to collaborate as partners in good governance seen through leadership styles, ethical principles, and initiatives.

The JMRF has made a commitment to encouraging young leaders to serve the public with quality, honesty, and humility. In line with these initiatives, it is hoped that the next generation leaders will be able to have a platform to demonstrate their leadership potential and share their creative approaches to governance. In addition to the recognition that the award brings, JMRF wants to connect meritorious leaders with organizations so that their efforts to improve the community can continue.

Juan Carlo S. Medina has demonstrated exceptional leadership skills, focusing on matino, mahusay, at may puso, during his tenure as City Mayor of Vigan. Notable are his accomplishments in increasing Vigan City’s revenue through updating of the City’s Revenue Code which lead to the influx of profit thereby the city was able to increase its health services and financial assistance, upgrade its livelihood programs; form partnerships with different organizations that supported Vigan City’s advocacies on culture and heritage such as the United Cities and Local Governments Asia-Pacific, Organization of World Heritage Cities, The League of Historic Cities and ICLEI; served as the Regional Development Council (RDC) Chair for Region-I from 2017-2022, and as the RDC Chair, he meticulously attended council and committee meetings that paved way to the implementation of various regional and special development projects; his leadership has led to an outstanding governance, always endeavored a results-based culture of leadership, thus, during his term, he strived for the City Government to be ISO 9001:2015 certified in all its government services; aligned his platforms and programs in children and youth development thus, strengthened programs such as the ECCD Program and the local school board, and expansion of the Scholarship Program; and his COVID-19 response programs were excellent and commendable — from establishing the Vigan Covid Task Force, mitigation and management measures, assistance programs to affected individuals and sectors, effective information and education campaigns, continuity of services amid the pandemic, to economic recovery and rehabilitation measures that includes the very successful vaccination rollout. Vigan was one of the key cities in the country to rollout COVID-19 vaccinations leading to the recovery and new normal activities in the city that we enjoy today.

He will receive the 2022 Gawad Jesse M. Robredo award on September 5, 2023, at the Bay Leaf Hotel in Intramuros, Manila.