Good governance is empowering says LMP exec
By Venus L. Garcia
BUTUAN CITY, Jan. 16 (PIA) – Executive director
of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines Marisa Lerias lectured and
shared the practice of good governance during the second day conduct of
Democratic Local Governance in Southeast Asia Conference held in Bangkok,
Thailand today.
“Good governance is empowering, ethical,
effective. Good governance is difficult but we should take comfort in the
knowledge that we are not alone.” This is the affirmative statement of Lerias
as she integrated good governance in her topic “Models of people’s
participation in local decision making in ASEAN member states.”
She said that the Philippine Consortium on Good
Local Governance was borne out of series of activities to advocate for concrete
programs on good governance. The member organizations united themselves to
engage woud be national leaders and vigorous push for consideration of concrete
recommendations.
Lerias cited the governance model of Naga City
which serves as its guiding framework. It involves progressive development
perspective which seeks prosperity-building tempered by an enlightened
perception of the poor; functional partnership which refers to the vehicles
that enable the city to tap community resources for priority undertakings; and
participation as the mechanism that ensure long-term sustainability of local
undertakings.
As explained by her, local education can be done
in the context of current legal framework and with shared responsibility that
goes together with shared accountability. She also bared that broad-based
stakeholdership enhances outcomes by serving as entry points for greater and
more meaningful stakeholder participation.
“Take for example, budgetary provision for
hiring locally-funded high school teachers paved way for teacher recruitment
reforms. School board budgets authorize conduct of divisionwide pre-testing and
post-testing. Results serve as basis for additional teacher incentives,” said
Lerias.
Meanwhile, she presented the documentation of
the country’s proud pioneers during the Youth Leaders’ Summit on Good
Governance, where student leaders developed groundbreaking projects that would
drive their fellow youth to register and play a role in the May 2013 elections.
She also emphasized that setting of rules of
engagement minimizes potential conflicts. (VLG/PIA-Caraga)
Local governance reforms shared in Delgosea
conference
By Jennifer P. Gaitano
BUTUAN CITY, Jan. 16 (PIA) – Winfried Wicklein,
Principal Country Specialist of Asian Development Bank (ADB) Thailand and one
of the speakers during the Democratic Local Governance in Southeast-Asia
(Delgosea) Conference held on Thursday in Bangkok, Thailand has shared his
company’s reforms on decentralization.
“ADB has worked on decentralization reforms in a
number of ASEAN countries, mainly by addressing the fiscal and administrative
dimensions to bridge the gap between discretion and accountability. Examples include the Philippines and
Indonesia, which are fairly advanced on decentralization reforms, and Cambodia
where the initial decentralization frameworks are being established,” said
Wicklein.
The ADB has valued transparency through giving
support to full disclosure of official documents by local administrations;
implementation of financial management information systems.
As to accountability, Wicklein bared that own
revenue collection, performance monitoring systems for service delivery, and
instruments for dialogue and feed back for local constituents were achieved. As
to the efficiency, proliferation of performance-based grants, is linked to the
achievement of minimum standards on financial management; evaluation mechanisms
of local government that assist in determining the quality of capital
investments.
Wicklein elaborated that the general trends on a
more recent policy dialogue on local governance and decentralization reforms
include: enhanced focus on
performance–based monitoring tools that allow adequate accountability of local
government to their constituents; support to the implementation of information
disclosure and transparency policies at the sub-national level; design and implementation
of performance-based infrastructure funds for local governments; and sustained
emphasis on gender mainstreaming in policy formulation and implementation.
“It is important to take a long-term view on
relatively new transparency and accountability processes and systems to become
institutionalized at the local level,” stressed Wicklein.
There is also a need to continue to create
enabling conditions for social accountability initiatives to take root at the
local level through ongoing reforms in fiscal, regional administration, own
source revenues and public financial management issues while capacity building
efforts should include not only the national and local institutions, but also
the local citizen groups to equip them with tools for meaningful interaction
with local officials.
Wicklein also emphasized that for
decentralization to work, local constituents must be able to convey their
preferences and priorities for service delivery to local representatives and to
monitor the actions of local governments. (JPG/PIA-Caraga)
DPWH estimates P114 million total damage in
Caraga
By Darryl P. Pinabacdao
SURIGAO CITY, Jan. 16 (PIA) - The Department of
Public Works and Highways (DPWH) in Caraga has released the initial assessment
of flood damages in Caraga Region to infrastructure amounted to P114 million.
The estimated amount provided by DPWH covers the
damaged public infrastructure caused by continuous rainfall brought about by
the low pressure area (LPA).
According to DPWH, the numbers are likely to
increase as the heavy rain continues to fall.
DPWH stated that there are roads in Bayugan City
and Agusan del Sur that are still not passable in all types of motor vehicles.
DPWH is doing their best in repairing the
damaged roads and requesting the people in the region to visit their office
before planning to travel, said in a report.
In the duration and aftermath of the heavy rains
and floods caused by LPA, damage to road infrastructure was among the top priority
of DPWH. (DPP/PIA-Surigao del Norte)
DAR holds web-based LTI Tool Orientation in
Surigao del Sur
By Nida Grace P. Barcena
TANDAG CITY, Jan. 16 (PIA) – The Department of
Agrarian Reform (DAR) conducted a 2-day orientation on the Web-Based Land
Tenure Improvement (LTI) Operational Tool to technical personnel of DAR-Surigao
del Sur.
The web-based LTI tool is a tracking system used
to find easily the records of the status of the lands acquired or covered under
the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).
The tool is being developed to provide
streamlined data processing support to Land Acquisition and Distribution (LAD)
activities in the field offices.
The system caters the following Land Acquisition
& Distribution (LAD) processes such as: identification and documentation;
land survey; land valuation and land distribution.
“Trainers from the Management Information System
of DAR Central Office served as the resource speakers of the activity,” said
DAR information officer Myra Yu.
She also added that the land transaction
accomplished by their office will now be incorporated in the system where each
beneficiaries has a corresponding folder’s name that can be easily to accessed.
(NGBT/PIA-Surigao del Sur)
Popcom, LGU-Butuan ink PopDev Cooperation
By Angie Balen- Antonio
BUTUAN CITY, Jan. 16 (PIA) - Strengthening
partnership between the Commission on Population (Popcom) and the local
government of Butuan on the integration of population concerns into plans and
programs city-wide has been formalized through a Memorandum of Understanding
(MOU) signed by both parties on January 9, 2014, this city.
Popcom represented by the Executive Director
Juan Antonio A. Perez III and the City Mayor Hon. Ferdinand M. Amante, Jr.
recognized the relevance of MOU for technical cooperation on Population and
Development (POPDEV) Integration in local governance.
As cited in the MOU, Popcom shall provide
technical assistance to the LGU in developing appropriate tools, processes,
methodologies to be integrated in the local development plans.
Popcom Regional Director Alexander A.
Makinano disclosed that the population
and development integration is a population management strategy that enable
institutions to create an enabling environment for people to achieve their
development goals through well-planned
and happy families.
“Recognizing the importance and necessity of
integrating population dimensions in development initiatives can contribute to
policies and programs that will help government attain a well-managed
population," he quoted.
Acting on its role, Popcom also turned-over
various IT equipment to the Population Office of Butuan in support of the
institutionalization of the population program.
It can be recalled that POPDEV Integration was
adopted as among the strategies in the City’s Medium-Term Development Plan
(MTDP), and in the Congressional – City Development Agenda. (Popcom-13/PIA-Caraga)
