November 16, 2010
Prepared by the Department of Interior and Local Government
THE FIRST 100 DAYS: Where Local Governance Reforms Converge
In
the first one hundred days of the administration of His Excellency
President Benigno S. Aquino III, we at the Department of the Interior
and Local Government have sown and nurtured the seeds of good governance
and peace and order in provinces, cities and towns all over the
Philippines, in the hope that the years ahead would see transparency,
accountability, responsiveness, and committed volunteerism at the heart
of local governance in the country.
PERFORMANCE-DRIVEN LOCAL GOVERNANCE
We
have combined ongoing and pioneering programs to ensure that local
governments (LGUs) provide high level of performance in meeting the
demands and expectations of our people in accordance with mandated
functions, duties and responsibilities.
The
Local Governance Performance Management System (LGPMS),
an assessment tool which measures the performance of LGUs in various
areas of governance, ensures that more than half of all LGUs are
accomplishing their State of Local Governance and State of Development
Reports (SLGR and SDR).
The
Seal of Good Housekeeping identifies
LGUs that performs excellently in the key governance areas of planning,
fiscal management, transparency and accountability, and performance
monitoring. This seal is essential for LGUs to avail of the
Performance Challenge Fund (PCF), which seeks to recognize best practices in local governance that guarantee attainment of development goals.
TRANSPARENCY AND ACCOUNTABILITY
We have implemented the
Full Disclosure Policy that urges all LGUs to reveal fully their budgets and finances and bids
and
public offerings by posting them on the Internet, print media of
community or general circulation and in conspicuous places. To affirm
our people’s right to information, the policy requires full disclosure
by all LGUs of their CY 2010 annual budget and quarterly statement of
cash flows.
We have conducted extensive dialogues and
consultations with LGU leagues and other development partners in making
the policy more effective.
We have
forged partnership with Balay Mindanao,
a non- government organization that seeks to alleviate poverty and
promote peace and order, and people participation in local governance in
Mindanao.
We will utilize the organization’s
Budget Tracking Towards Transparent and Accountable Governance(BTTAG) program in extensively monitoring the performance of LGUs.
We
have instituted reforms in our procurement procedures to reduce
discretion of people involved in the process and to make sure that our
people’s money are utilized for meaningful and necessary programs and
projects.
We have encouraged non-government organizations
to act as observers during biddings to ensure that procurement laws are
being followed.
PEOPLE POWER VERSUS POVERTY
We have localized our approach in achieving the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
to strengthen efforts to significantly reduce poverty in the country
and to spur economic development in the countryside.
We have intensified the
Community-Based Monitoring System and have implemented the
Local Government Support Program.
These measures enable LGUs to effectively monitor and evaluate the
progress of local poverty-alleviation programs that contribute to the
attainment of the MDGs.
We enhanced the delivery of basic
services to the people of Visayas and Mindanao and opened up their lives
for more economic opportunities through our
Provincial Road Management Facility, a governance reform project that uses road rehabilitation in improving local government systems and processes.
We
stepped up our efforts in delivering affordable and quality potable
water to people living in 45 local government units nationwide through
the
Enhancing Access to and Provision of Water Services to the Poor or the
MDG:1919 project.
ACCESSIBILITY
To
make processes and procedures in local governance work, it is important
for LGUs to be very accessible to stakeholders. Hence, we have
strengthened the implementation of the
Comprehensive and Unified Response to Eliminate Red Tape (CURE) program through policy audit and compliance tracking of LGUs’ initiatives against red tape.
Our campaign against red tape was highlighted by the signing of a
Joint Memorandum Circular between the DILG and the Department of Trade and Industry for the nationwide
Streamlining of Business Permits and Licensing System Reform Project.
From
the initial 40 local government units that have been capacitated early
this year, we expect close to 200 LGUs to have been capacitated by the
end of this year. This paves the way for making LGUs havens of
investment and business.
We have enjoined local chief executives to designate a
Local Economic and Investment Promotion Officer to
help in the preparation, coordination and execution of local economic
investment promotion policies and projects and activities.
DISASTER-RESILIENCE
We
implemented calamity response protocols and associated actions in flood
and landslide-prone areas that calls for among others the activation of
all disaster command and auxiliary command centers and area-wide
warning and alarm system. The protocols and actions facilitate
deployment of emergency response, rescue and medical teams in areas hit
by disasters.
We forged a
Memorandum of Understanding with local government units for the implementation of
Mainstreaming Disaster Risk Reduction/ Climate Change Adaptation to Local Government Processes,
a project urging LGUs to integrate disaster mitigation and prevention
programs into their local physical and developmental plans.
We have started restoring the lives of people in Central Luzon and the rehabilitation of their communities through the project
Strengthening the Disaster Risk reduction Capacity of LGUs Affected by Typhoon Parma.
We
have taken initial steps in ensuring that LGUs have substantial fund to
address disasters that come their way through the proposed
National Disaster Funds Pool for LGUs or the
Paluwagan para sa Paghahanda sa Kalamidad.
The program aims to pool the calamity fund of the LGUs and augment them
with the national calamity fund to improve their capacity to respond to
calamities and disasters.
GOOD GOVERNANCE IN ARMM
To
propagate transparency and accountability in governance in the
Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, dialogues have been conducted and
agreements were reached on new measures to improve performance.
We have started to conduct a
Special Audit covering
the period January 2008 to December 2009. We have looked into the
Office of the Regional Governor’s fund utilization and the regional
government’s Social Fund. We also have looked into the provincial
government of Maguindanao and the regional offices of national
government agencies.
RESETTLEMENT
We
have looked into the plight of informal settlers all over the country
to comply with the directive of His Excellency President Benigno S.
Aquino.
We have identified 1, 011, 916 informal settlers
in cities and municipalities throughout the country. We have checked the
existence of local housing boards. An ongoing audit reveals that 73
cities do not have housing boards.
To address the
situation, we enjoined all local executives to immediately identify
lands within their areas of jurisdiction that can be used for urban
housing, as well as for them to update their respective Comprehensive
Land Use Plan.
We have conducted intervention on forced evictions that resulted in the suspension of demolition.
We have capacitated barangay development councils in helping informal settlers.
We
also have forged partnership with government agencies and
non-government organizations and other stakeholders to comprehensively
address the plight of informal settlers.
EMPOWERMENT OF LOCAL GOVERNMENTS
To
improve local governance, promote local autonomy and make the Local
Government Code more responsive, we have crafted various legislative
proposals that are focused on providing local governments greater
flexibility in revenue generation and raising financial resources.
The proposed
Local Government Enhancement Fund aims
to address the problem of adjustment on the cost of devolved functions
and incentive performance by providing five percent adjustment fund to
compensate LGUs with negative transfer or where their current IRA does
not cover the cost of devolved services, and another five percent
performance-based grant to support LGUs which exhibit good performance
in fiscal management and local service delivery.
COMMITTED VOLUNTEERISM
To
create an environment where our people can freely and actively engage
in local governance, we have established the Partnership Coordination
Office to provide technical and legal support to our programs and
projects implemented in partnership with non-government organizations.
We
have accredited organizations that can have representatives to special
bodies in the local level and help in promoting accountability,
transparency, inclusivity, and performance in local governance.
INTERNAL GOVERNANCE IMPROVEMENT
To
walk the talk, we keep in stride with the LGUs in effecting reforms and
changes in our own organization, processes and systems to realize the
President’s vision.
We have made our website more
interactive and user-friendly to allow the public to comment on our
draft policy issuances. We reestablished the Public Assistance and
Complaint System to attend to the needs of the general public.
We
have eliminated redundant positions. With this, we have not only
generated savings, but ensured that a “lean but mean” organization is
ready to address the needs of our clients.
We also
have stopped issuing Fire and Life Safety Assessment Report (FALAR) as
supporting document in the issuance of a Fire Safety Inspection
Certificate.
PEACE AND ORDER AND PUBLIC SAFETY
To
strengthen peace and order drives throughout the country, Regional
Peace and Order Councils (RPOCs) have been reinforced. We have put into
operation Crisis Management Committees nationwide to anticipate
emergency situations.
The Philippine National Police has
scored big in our firm and resolute drive against trafficking in
persons, in line with the directive of the President.
To give more teeth to our campaign against illegal gambling, the “one-strike” policy is now in place and vigorously enforced.
We
have reviewed our guidelines on the procurement of PNP equipment,
conduct of public bidding, as procedures for the approval of the PNP
procurement manual.
We have restructured the PNP Highway Patrol Group, Finance Service and Intelligence Group.
We have conducted inspection and audit of 527 police offices nationwide to determine their state of readiness in
responding to peace and order challenges.
The
Bureau of Fire Protection and the Bureau of Jail Management and
Penology have reviewed their inventory and distribution of property and
equipment to rationalize the allocation of prisoner vans and fire
trucks.
We have made the wheel of justice grind faster in
the National Police Commission (Napolcom) nationwide through the
implementation of the “zero backlog case” program. The campaign speeds
up the resolution of administrative cases involving policemen pending
before the Napolcom Legal Affairs Service (LAS), the Regional Appellate
Boards (RABs) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) Internal Affairs
Service (PNP-IAS).
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