| Author | Tortosa, Antonio J. Peláez |
| Call Number | AIT Thesis no.RD-02-02 |
| Subject(s) | Decentralization in government Philippines
|
| Note | A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of
Science |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Abstract | The Filipino decentralisation process has been highlighted by many scholars and
development-related institutions as a good instance of State reform aiming at strengthening
local governance through the setting up of a participatory development approach.
The 1991 Local Government Code was enacted under the objective to create a legal
decentralisation framework aimed to provide a regionally diversified country with real
autonomy and managerial capability at the lowest level of public administration. The Code
transfened significant financial resources, capabilities and personal from the national
government to local governments. Additionally, this body of laws included several features
designed to facilitate the citizenry involvement in the process of local government decision
making. Therefore, the Code tried to address the diverse aspects comprising the two mayor
dimensions of any decentralisation process, namely planning and financing.
In spite of the generally recognised achievements, the Code is, after 10 years of its
enactment, clearly showing some of its weaknesses and deficits. A fact that proves it, is the
intense debate cunently arising within the Filipino academe and public administration
sectors about the true impact of the decentralisation process, and the potential effect and
feasibility of its amendment, redefinition and even reformulation.
Departing from my own admiration of the process, I focus my attention on those areas
where the mentioned weakness are more patent, in order to ascertain the reasons of such
constraints and to provide some feasible ways of enhancement.
A mayor context where variations in the Code implementation have occurred is the
prior existence of wide differences in economic development and diversification and
geographical attributes among urban and rural localities. The Code itself has not been
sensitive to the heterogeneity of these patterns and the particularities and needs that these
imply. The design of the Code focussed on the provision of multiple ways for the LGUs to
create their own model of income generation and economic self-reliance. However, it did
not put equal impetus in identifying strategies to support those LGUs lacking the necessary
resources to take advantage of the introduced pro-business provisions.
With this background, I have attempted to demonstrate that those LGUs originally
enjoying a dynamic and diversified economy, normally the urban centres, have been more
profited than the rural and economic backward areas.
Ultimately, my objective has been to ascertain the relationship between such practical
implication and the uniformity and unitarian nature of the Code and its implementation, in
accordance with the application of a neo-liberal approach to decentralisation, which has
brought about the absence of attention to the particular pre-existing patterns of the LGUs
as well as their atomisation into a huge amount of units lacking strong co-ordiantive ties
among themselves and between them and the central government. |
| Year | 2002 |
| Type | Thesis |
| School | School of Environment, Resources, and Development (SERD) |
| Department | Department of Development and Sustainability (DDS) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Rural Development, Gender and Resources (RD) |
| Chairperson(s) | Sajor, Edsel ; |
| Examination Committee(s) | Demaine, Harvey;Routray, Jayant K. ; |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | European Commission. (DG 1 B - EC of the
European Union);PTS Program (Postgraduate Technological
Studies); |
| Degree | Thesis (M. Sc.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2002 |