Polegov

Adversity reveals genius. So an adage says. True enough, the Coronavirus disease (COVID)-19 pandemic has brought the Philippines one of the most popular and even well-oved mayor -- Vico Sotto. Mayor Vico was recognized when he implemented out of the box initiatives to address the issues brought about by COVID-19. Often, he earns the ire of the officials in the national government not because he was wrong but because he is the first, if not among the first, to show that a simple solution actually works.  In this video, Mayor Vico and Pasig City shares one of the best decisions they made -- transforming the Pasig City Children's Hospital into a COVID-19 facility and beef up the local health system to increase efficiency, reduce risk of contamination between COVID and non-COVID cases, and control, if not reduce the number of positive cases. Because of its experience, the city government is now panning to operate the hospital as a specialty hospital for infectious diseases -- a facilit

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. The Code is supposed to be automatically reviewed and amended. However, because of interest incompatibilities among legislators and other stakeholders, nothing happened. True, reviews were conducted particu

No one has ever found a cure yet to t he Coronavirus disease (COVID)19. The only possible ways to mitigate its effect are to avoid it using the approved health protocols, control its spread by identifying those who are infected, and tracing those who have contacts with the infected to isolate as well as treat them. The City of Ilagan in Isabela implemented programs that integrates these. Not only that, they also tried to automate contact tracing by developing an app that can be used even by less techy individuals. The app. called HealthGuard, was developed in partnership with Isabela State University. It is basically a contact tracing app that could give data and information to aid evidence-based decision-making. Do you also have a similar contact tracing system in your LGU? Feel free to leave a comment below.

  Gravel and Sand Quarrying in Albay The Municipality of Guinobatan, in Albay, is one of those that suffered heavily from Typhoon Rolly. Its losses include five persons dead and two more missing, and millions of pesos worth of destroyed houses, public infrastructure and agriculture. The cause: The quarrying at the foot of Mt. Mayon that flooded the barangays close to the volcano with sand, boulders and volcanic debris. Allegedly, the quarried materials were left in the riverbeds that when Typhoon Rolly arrived, the water pushed the materials along with boulders and rocks down to the residential and agricultural areas.  Investigation on this claim is still on-going and quarrying activities have been suspended already. Even then, the question lingers: Just how lucrative is the quarrying of sand and gravel along Mt. Mayon that even Albay’s provincial governor is allegedly engaged in it? According to the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB), quarrying of sand and gravel at the foot of the vo

In the Philippines, the bigger part of the burden in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic was given to the local government units (LGUs). Unfortunately, these LGUs are not prepared -- not just because COVID-19 is new but primarily because the current structures and systems are not really designed to make LGU work easier. These include, among others, the unequal distribution of resources, and the level and architecture of devolution. Some local governments, however, are able to adapt and develop innovations for their constituencies without breaking any law. Galing Pook Foundation (GPF) was able to document around 600 of these innovations from different LGUs nationwide and gave awards and recognition to a number of them. From award-winning innovations, Galing Pook developed the Adaptive and Innovative Leadership Course to hone the leadership skills and adaptive capacities of local leaders from both the public and private sector regardless of the situation. The course is timely that the