Republic Act 7160 otherwise known as the Local Government Code of the Philippines was once considered as the most advanced in Southeast Asia. But when theory meets reality especially in responding to pandemics like COVID-19, that is where everything becomes interesting.
In 2014, Doc. Eddie Dorotan and I co-wrote the book, "Issues and Critical Actions in Local Governance". The book was made possible with the support of the Galing Pook Foundation, Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines (ULAP) and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung. In sum, the book presents the opportunities and major changes the Code introduced in the sub-national governance as well as itemize the issues and challenges being encountered by the local government officials in the pursuit of their functions.
1. Unequal and biased distribution of wealth -- between the national and local governments, and among local government units. The principles of devolution and decentralization under the Code re-structures the powers and functions between the national and local governments but not the distribution of resources. The 60-40 sharing is favorable to the national government where policies are done but not to the LGUs where the actions happen. Hence, when the COVID-19 pandemic occurred, almost all LGUs were caught off-guard especially when demand for services increased. Local government officials were cooked like "bibingka" with Netizens lambasting them in the social media and threatened with administrative cases any no less than the Philippine President himself and the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) -- the very institution that is supposed to support and capacitate them.
Worse, while expectations from all LGUs are the same, the resources on which they operate differs. Provincial and city governments, the units which have more power to generate resources, are automatically given higher allocations. As a result, municipal and barangay governments are in quandary because they can only do as much. For example, with the COVID-19 vaccine becoming available, at least 61 cities in the Philippines have allocated over PhP 10 billion for COVID-19 vaccines while the 1,488 municipalities and the rest of the 146 cities, the poorer ones, can only wait what the national government is going to give them.
2. Level and architecture of devolution. The Philippines has an "imperfect devolution architecture" and this had not been corrected since 1991. While the tasks are downloaded to the LGUs, the money remains at the central government. When the pandemic struck, most LGUs were in the red because apart from ensuring that their territorial boundaries are contained, they also need to distribute food packs to their constituents especially during the first few months of the enhanced community quarantine.
The functions-and-resource disconnect is acknowledged by the central government particularly the Budegt Secretary Wendel Avisado. According to Avisado, "They (LGUs) have nothing to spend to respond to the needs of the pandemic", especially considering that the budget was crafted and approved without COVID-19 in mind. The only consolation is that the Congress enacted Bayanihan Acts 1 and 2 (Republic Act Nos. 11469 and 11494) which gave LGUs a one time grant amounting to a month's worth of internal revenue allotment for cities and municipalities and a half month's worth for provincial governments or a total of P30.8 billion.
But even the grant under the Bayanihan Acts are not enough especially considering that the LGUs have to face not only the pandemic but also other natural calamities. In the last quarter of 2020, for instance, three typhoons battered the country and along with them are landslides and floods.
4. Weak barangay governance. At the frontline of the delivery of services are the barangay governments. Unfortunately, barangay officials generally lacked not only the resources to perform their functions but also the technical knowhow. As a result, they became the punching bags of angry constituents from the start of the pandemic to the present.
To mitigate the anger and discontent of their constituents especially in the distribution of the Social Amelioration funds, some barangay officials tried to be creative by dividing the payouts to increase the number of beneficiaries. So instead of giving PhP 8,000 to one beneficiary, there are those who request that these be divided into two so that others will also receive money. Unfortunately, this was questioned that the said "innovative" officials were filed with graft cases and other administrative charges. As of September 2020, around 416 barangay officials have been (or are being) investigated according to the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG). These include the officials who are either corrupt to the core or those who are just trying to be innovative for a greater number of beneficiaries.
The weak barangay governance is also observable in the simple interpretation of pandemic-related regulations. Checkpoints, for instance, have been set-up by barangay LGUs that in the macro, the mobility of necessary goods such as food and hygiene-related products have been hampered. The result, not only did the products reached the markets on time but also increased their prices. Truck drivers, for instance, complain that local checkpoints required a number of documents all of which were not generated for free. Hence, the costs were added on to the goods.
The only difference is the demand-side issue as identified in the book. With the pandemic and quarantine regulations, the people had more time to spare in the social media which they used for demanding not only services but also accountabilities from their local officials. Unfortunately, most of the people are still not familiar with the government processes that they become emotional and even irrational in stating their demands.
Looking forward to read your book.
ReplyDeleteyour book sounds interesting. where can i buy it?
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