Negros city is world’s 2nd ‘most livable’

ILOILO CITY—A Negros Occidental city is the second most livable city in the world for a population not exceeding 150,000.

During awarding rites held in South Korea on Oct. 31, San Carlos City was cited as the second most livable among cities with a population of 75,000-150,000.

The most livable city with that kind of population was Tongyeong in South Korea, where the awarding rites were held for the UN-backed International Awards for Liveable Communities (LivCom).

The third most livable city in that category was Namown, also in South Korea, according to the LivCom website.

The annual awards recognize cities based on their performance in several criteria, including environmental practices, healthy lifestyle of citizens, community involvement, arts and cultural heritage.

San Carlos was the only Philippine city which won in the “whole city awards.” It also won the “Special Whole City Award.”

The contest for cities has five categories based on their average daytime population  of 20,000 to those with over 400,000.

This year’s awards had 77 finalist cities from 26 countries, the largest so far in the awards’ 15-year history, according to a LivCom statement.