Local Government in the Philippines and the Problems it Faces

Throughout history, the Philippines have had many attempts to decentralize the power of the
administration shaped by several centuries of foreign rule to the various local units of
government. As history books will prove, local governments in the Philippines have their roots
in Spanish colonial administration. In its three centuries of colonial rule since the 1500s, the
Spanish government operated mainly in a highly centralized system, with the Spanish
Governor General seated in Manila as the actual head of all provinces and cities of the country.
During the early 1900s, the United States took over and custom-tailored the local government
administration. Within the next few decades after the country was given its independence,
several steps were made towards addressing the growing concept of nationalism and self-rule
and decentralization, including the 1987 Constitution, which provided for a creation of a local
government code. Pursuant to Article II, Section 25 of the Constitution, Republic Act 7160, or
the Local Government Code of 1991 (LGC), was enacted.
After the enactment of the 1991 LGC, local government units (LGUs) were given more power.
Intergovernmental administration shifted towards local autonomy and decentralization
manifested in three ways: political, fiscal and institutional. In the national government setting,
the executive and legislative are now mainly tasked with creating the policies, formulating the
standards, and implementing the various national, sectoral and departmental programs
towards the countrys development through the help of local governments.
Currently, the administrative division in the Philippines is as follows: 17 regions, 80 provinces,
143 cities, 1,491 municipalities and 42,028 barangays. There has been a massive
decentralization of powers from the national government, not just in administration and
governance, but also in developmental planning and managing of social and economic matters,
including social welfare, agriculture, health, and environmental protection. This is perhaps the
countrys most successful endeavor in devolving the scope of the governments powers and
addressing the Philippines changing political environment. Or is it?
With this decentralization of power, LGUs have been given a major role in the development of
the nation; however, the extent to how these LGUs perform this major responsibility is
constantly under scrutiny. Several problems can be pointed out:
Improper Delegation of Functions there are some functions that are carried out by the
national government that can be better accomplished by LGUs, including disaster risk
management, protection of environment and natural resources, and fiscal management. On
the other hand, some functions assigned to LGUs are too comprehensive, far-reaching, and
resource-intensive to handle, and can be best left to the national government, such as in

delivery of health services, where LGUs perform very poorly due to lack of financial and
technical capabilities, as well as lack of resources.
Lack of Capability of Local Officials for Governance some of the functions given to
the LGUs require knowledge, skills and certain sets of competencies from the heads and
officials in LGUs. Major education and training programs are needed to ensure that local
public officials can perform their functions properly. More often than not, officials are prone
to committing corrupt practices either due to lack of skill or lack of inculcation of the values
of good governance. Also, directly related to this is the prevalence of political dynasties,
whereby public offices are kept within rich and powerful political families, regardless of
qualification.
Lack of Capability to Generate or Raise Income at present, most LGUs still lack
capability to earn its own income and still have limited financial autonomy, although they
have been given the power to tax within their localities and share with the income of
government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs) within its locality. Most LGUs
merely rely on government dole-outs: the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA), computed
based on population (50%), land area (25%), and a share in national taxes (25%); and
shares from national wealth, which is 40% of the amount collected from use of national
wealth located in the locality. Other political systems that provide responsibility to LGUs
keep control of resources within the national level, but in the Philippines, revenues and
financial resources are in whole and directly controlled by the local authorities.
Prevalence of Political Dynasties many local public offices in urban and rural areas
are held by political families that have stayed in power for many decades, some even as far
back as the Spanish and American eras. In his monumental study of elite political families,
Alfred McCoy mentioned that these dynasties have, after amassing sufficient wealth,
prestige and power, continued to practice subversion of the public wealth in the service of
private, familial wealth which can be characterized as corruption. Local public offices have
been passed on like a property to members within political families and have become family
heirlooms. It is also increasingly hard to penetrate or break this dynastic tradition: to win
in the local elections, a new candidate needs to assemble or get the approval of political
families within the area; while to win in a national election, a candidate must run under
the umbrella of prominent aristocratic clans within each region. Although our 1987
Constitution mandates prohibition of political dynasties, Congress has never been
successful in enacting a law that will put force behind this provision.
Corruption and Misuse of Public Funds the two previous problems cited above could
eventually lead to corrupt practices, misuse and misappropriation of public funds. Simply
put, its either due to lack of inherent good governance capabilities, or due to the lack of

stringent laws from the national level that can punish public officials for such acts.
Congressmen get 70 million pesos annually from the so-called pork barrel or officially, the
Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) to promote development, but how much of it
gets used for valuable projects is often a subject of silent controversy.
To address these problems, there is no need for an overhaul of the whole system, however a
reexamination of the Local Government Code of 1991, particularly in the scope of the functions
of LGUs might help. More capability and skills building for public officials, as well as
professionalization of lower level local officials, are also needed to assure good governance. A
reevaluation of the IRA to include performance measures and poverty indicators might also be
necessary, so as to avoid budget deficit or surplus, in some cases. An extensive research on
alternative ways of raising taxes and revenues is also useful, as it will avoid dependence of the
LGUs on dole-outs of the national government. Lastly, a strengthening of the implementation of
anti-graft and corrupt practices law in the local level, and in utopian ambitions, an enactment
of anti-political dynasties act, would be greatly beneficial to the countrys overall political
system. Until then, the citizenry would just have to exercise our political rights to steer LGUs
to the right direction.
Sources:
Anderson, Benedict. 1988. Cacique Democracy and the Philippines: Origins and Dreams. New
Left Review 1(169):3-31.
McCoy, Alfred. 2010. An Anarchy of Families: State and Family in the Philippines. Manila:
Ateneo de Manila Press.
Gonzales, Raul. 1997. Case Studies on Decentralization: Philippines. Paper prepared for SDA
Technical Consultation on Decentralization (TCD) FAO HQ, Rome, Italy. 16-18 December 1997.
Accessed 08, 2013. http://www.fao.org/docrep/013/am164e/am164e00.pdf.
Reich, Charles. 1964. The New Property. The Yale Law Journal 73(5):733-787.
CBNRM.net Local Governance And Participatory Natural Resources Management: Usaids
Gold Project In The Philippines. Accessed 08, 2013.
http://www.cbnrm.net/pdf/case_philippines_008.pdf.
Cenpeg.org. 10 Reform Issues on Local Governance. 2009. Accessed 08, 2013.
http://www.cenpeg.org/2012/TFD/10%20reform%20issues%20in%20governance.pdf.

CountryStudies.us. Philippines: A Country Study. 1991. Accessed 08, 2013.

http://countrystudies.us/philippines/.
NSCB.gov.ph. Provincial Summary - Number Of Provinces, Cities, Municipalities And
Barangays, By Region. 03, 2013. Accessed 08, 2013.
http://www.nscb.gov.ph/activestats/psgc/NSCB_PSGC_SUMMARY_March_2013.pdf.
PFM.IMF.org. Empowering Local Government in the Philippines Through Fiscal
Decentralization. Accessed 08, 2013. http://blog-pfm.imf.org/pfmblog/2011/10/empoweringlocal-government-in-the-philippines-through-fiscal-decentralization.html
UNESCAP.org. Local Government in Asia and the Pacific: A Comparative Study. Accessed 08,
2013. http://www.unescap.org/huset/lgstudy/country/philippines/philippines.html.
DILG8.org. Unpacking the Local Government Code of 1991. Accessed 08, 2013.
http://dilg8.org/attachments/article/94/Unpacking%20the%20Local%20Gov't.%20Code%20of
%201991%20(LGA).pdf