Camarines Sur (CamSur) Governor and former Rep. LRay Villafuerte is the No. 1 governor in Bicol with an outstanding combined governance index rating of 84.2% in trust and performance in the latest Boses ng Bayan assessment or survey of prominent pollster RP-Mission and Development (RPMD) Foundation Inc.
Villafuerte garnered the highest score to top the RPMD’s Index of Governance (IOG), which is “the composite governance indicator derived from both trust ratings and performance,” according to RPMD in a report posted on its Facebook page.
“Unlike popularity surveys, the IOG measures public confidence in elected officials and evaluates their actual performance in office, making it a more comprehensive gauge of leadership effectiveness, governance quality, and constituent satisfaction,” RPMD said in this report on its latest Boses ng Bayan governance assessment of all provincial chief executives in Bicol, which was conducted on April 1-8.
RPMD said that “Leading the regional rankings is Governor LRay Villafuerte of CamSur who posted an outstanding of 84.2% IOG … placing him firmly within RPMD’s highest-performing governance tier.”
The findings “suggest that Bicol voters continue to reward leaders who deliver results, maintain accessibility, and demonstrate effective governance.
“His (Villafuerte) rating was generated from 83.9% trust and 84.5% performance scores,” it said. “The results reflect broad constituent confidence in his leadership, public service delivery, and overall provincial management.”
The findings indicate, said RPMD, that “residents continue to view his administration favorably across key governance indicators, making him the highest-rated provincial governor in the Bicol Region.”
Following Villafuerte on the list are Gov. Noel Rosal (of Albay) with an IOG of 80.4%, Gov. Dong Padilla (Camarines Norte), 77.7%; Gov. Boboy Hamor (Sorsogon), 74.1%; Gov. Richard Kho (Masbate), 69.8%; and Gov. Patrick Azanza (Catanduanes), 67.9%.
The latest Boses ng Bayan survey of 5,000 Bicolano respondents “reveals a region where voters continue to reward leaders who demonstrate effective governance, responsive public service, accountability, and measurable results,” RPMD said. “The findings provide a comprehensive snapshot of public sentiment toward provincial leadership and underscore the growing importance of governance performance as a key measure of political success.”
According to RPMD executive director and global affairs analyst Dr. Paul Martinez, “the results demonstrate that Bicolano voters are increasingly evaluating their leaders based on governance outcomes rather than political affiliation or popularity.”
Martinez stressed that “citizens are paying closer attention to service delivery, responsiveness, accountability, program implementation, and overall provincial management when assessing their elected officials.”
Given that the IOG measures both public trust and actual governance performance, he explained that the “higher ratings indicate stronger public confidence and greater satisfaction with leadership outcomes.”
The findings “suggest that Bicol voters continue to reward leaders who deliver results, maintain accessibility, and demonstrate effective governance,” Martinez said.
This Bicol Region survey is part of RPMD’s nationwide Boses ng Bayan public service initiative, which regularly monitors public sentiment toward elected officials and institutions nationwide, he said.
RPMD’s Bicol Region Governance Assessment was conducted from April 1–8, through interviews with 5,000 randomly selected respondents across the six provinces of Bicol representing all socio-economic classes.
This survey carries a ±1% margin of error at a 95% confidence level.
The results demonstrate that Bicolano voters are increasingly evaluating their leaders based on governance
Upon assuming the governorship last year, Villafuerte vowed to lead his fellow Camsureños to “greater heights” on the back of a 12-point governance agenda designed to bring about a “greener, smarter, healthier, better-connected and digitally savvier” CamSur over the next three years.
A “triple crown” of financial masterstrokes props up the remarkable narrative of CamSur from being the 39th poorest province in 2004—the year that the then-export entrepreneur LRay Villafuerte entered electoral politics and first won as provincial governor—to the newest economic success story not only of Bicol and the rest of the Philippines but of the entire Southeast Asia as well.
CamSur has emerged as Bicol’s preeminent “Liquid Giant,” according to the Department of Finance (DOF)’s Bureau of Local Government Finance (BLGF), having posted an extraordinary end-2025 cash balance of P4.5 billion—supported by a current operating income of P5.17 billion, which is Bicol’s highest.
This record achievement marked the third of CamSur’s “triple crown” of feats in Philippine local governance this year, as it followed the BLGF’s earlier ranking of this province as No. 2 among all LGUs in year-on-year (YOY) local revenue growth, and by the Commission on Audit (COA) as No. 3 richest province for the second time in three years.
In its 2024 Annual Financial Report on Local Government Units (LGUs) released in December 2025, COA ranked CamSur as No. 3 richest economy with total assets of P33.23 billion and a net worth of P28.56 billion.
Among the flagship projects of CamSur on Villafuerte’s watch is the joint venture of American tech giant Google and Allied Corp. of Asia Pacific Pty Ltd. on an upcoming five-hectare (ha) facility that will manufacture Chromebook laptops.
It will be set up in the CamSur Uptown Global City, which is a 200-ha ultramodern major business complex being developed by the provincial government.
Villafuerte, who was a leading advocate of the switch from fossil fuels to renewables or clean energy in the previous Congresses, has pursued initiatives aimed at transforming CamSur into the renewable energy (RE) capital of the Philippines with ongoing and planned offshore wind (OSW) and onshore wind farms projected to generate almost 8,000 megawatts (MW) of electricity combined.
