IN 2011, Dr. Parag Khanna, a senior research fellow at the New America Foundation, wrote, “the 21st century will not be dominated by America or China, Brazil or India, but by the ‘City’.” Also a fellow at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, Khanna believes it’s the city—not the state—that will become “the nexus of economic and political power” in the world.
This echoes what journalist and urban activist Jane Jacobs wrote almost three decades before. In her Cities and the Wealth of Nations (1985), Jacobs outlined how “import-substitution” in cities and towns—or the process through which a certain locality gains the ability to create products and services that it previously imported—is in fact at the root of all economic expansion. In short, cities (municipalities, villages or other subnational divisions) are the true engines of national prosperity.
Hence, if we seek to propel the nation forward, our local governments—provinces, cities, municipalities and barangays—must be empowered to take charge of their future and have real autonomy to pursue prosperity for their people. In other words, they must be recognized as the country’s true economic workhorses, and supported accordingly. No less than my late father, Senate President Edgardo J. Angara once said: “The road to national development starts at the people’s doorstep.”
That is, of course, why a Local Government Code or LGC (RA 7160), mandating the decentralization and devolution of powers and responsibilities from national authorities to local government units (LGUs), was enacted in 1991.
True, the path to achieving true LGU autonomy since the LGC’s passage nearly three decades ago has had its share of challenges. Some continue to decry that local autonomy is all but an illusion, and that more should be done to let LGUs have a decisive say in their destinies.
But while the Senate Committee on Local Government, which I chair, is currently working on several measures and reforms to make local autonomy “real” throughout the country, that does not mean there haven’t been any noteworthy successes in local governance.
In fact, recently, the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) awarded some 263 LGUs—17 provinces, 39 cities and 207 municipalities—with the Seal of Good Local Governance (SGLG).
An LGU earns the SGLG only if it passes all the requirements of the DILG and meets the high standards provided under seven “governance areas”: financial administration; disaster preparedness; social protection; peace and order; business-friendliness and competitiveness; environmental management; and tourism, culture and the arts.
If an LGU makes the cut for an SGLG, it is entitled to a cash grant—worth P3 million for each municipality, P5 million for each city and P7 million for each province—for a local project it chooses to undertake. This year’s awardees are particularly noteworthy, since the DILG imposed stricter, more comprehensive criteria than in previous awards.
Meanwhile, last month, the National ICT Confederation of the Philippines (NICP) and the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) recognized 17 “digital cities” across the Philippines for their success in implementing different e-government projects or initiatives that utilize ICT for delivering better public services.
Clearly, cities around the country are already leveraging the power of ICT connectivity for good ends. In the 2018 Tholons Services Globalization Index even, six of our cities were included in the top 100 “Super Cities of the World” for outsourcing. These were: Metro Manila at No. 2 (from No. 4 last year); Cebu City at No. 11 (from No. 12); Davao City at No. 75 (from No. 85); Bacolod City at No. 89 (from No. 97); the City of Sta. Rosa, Laguna, at No. 87 (from No. 100); and Iloilo at No. 92 (but wasn’t part of the list last year).
Many LGUs are already taking charge and rolling out truly noteworthy initiatives. It is only right that some of them have been recognized for the success in local governance they’ve achieved. Shining a light on them allows others to follow and one day become true engines of national prosperity.
****
Sen. Sonny M. Angara was elected in 2013, and is now the chairman of the Senate Committees on Local Government, and Ways and Means.
E-mail: sensonnyangara@yahoo.com| Facebook, Twitter & Instagram: @sonnyangara.