Enhancing local governance (2)

Cotabato City—As mentioned in my column last week, the Ministry of the Interior and Local Government (MILG) of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region (BARMM) here has undertaken an incentive program to enhance local governance and bring constituents of more than 100 municipalities in the region closer to their respective local government functionaries and leaders. The MILG initiated the Local Government Units’ Assistance for Innovative Practices (LGAIP) at the inception of the fledgling autonomous region.

Through the technical assistance of the Support to Bangsamoro Transition (Subatra), a program designed to help facilitate a seamless transition of the region to a future regular regional government after the midterm elections in 2022, MILG was able to award LGAIP recognition to 10 municipalities in three provinces of the BARMM—Maguindanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Norte, and Lanao del Sur. Subatra is a multi-component technical assistance program that supports overall governance, legislative, access to justice, and facilitation of strategic infrastructure components. It is funded by the European Union, with co-funding from the Spanish Agency for Cooperation and International Development or the Agencia Española de Cooperacion Internacional para el Desarollo (AECID).

The innovative practices are cognizant of the unique contexts of BARMM’s local government units (LGUs). Many of these LGUs have been sites of violent conflicts in the region’s checkered history of armed strife of more than four decades—the highlight of which was more than two decades of being subjected to the repressive practices of Philippine security sector agents, the Philippine National Police and the Armed Forces of the Philippines, during martial law under Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr.

Peace and order are elusive in many BARMM localities where armed violence has become somewhat normalized. In Pagayawan, Lanao del Sur, where in the recent past there was a trend of active recruitment of youngsters to some violent extremist (VE) groups, the LGU there decided to come up with a unique identification system, complete with a municipal ID card, of all its residents. Some families there grieve for the members of their families who have been victims of murder due to being mistaken as members of a VE group.

Constituents of the mountainous municipality of Upi, Maguindanao del Norte, the heartland of the indigenous Teduray and Teduray-Lambangian have been fortunate to avail of several innovative practices of the LGU there starting with the administration of former mayor Ramon Piang (who is now an appointed member of the transitional parliament in the BARMM). He initiated projects that developed youth leaders, established a radio station for peace, a solid waste management program called EcoSavers that involved pupils in basic education for environmental awareness, and a search for model barangay program.

Other innovative programs include the use of savings in investing in maternal and child care and in delivering timely health services among constituents in Wao, Lanao del Sur; the creation of an inclusive program to provide assistive devices for persons with disabilities in Parang, Maguindanao del Norte; a joint system of promoting local and community security through the Creation of Community Leaders and Military and Police Advisory Council, and bringing quality higher education through the establishment of Paglat Municipal College in Maguindano del Sur; and the monthly “Bisita sa Barangay” in Sultan Mastura, Maguindanao del Norte. Another innovative practice of circular economy through the Trash to Treasure Program in Datu Abdullah Sangki in Maguindanao del Sur also qualified for the LGAIP incentive award. This program has also led to the competition of barangays for the “green plate” award given by the municipal government to the barangay with the most innovative transformation of trash to cash or treasure as they call it, in terms of design of the product made from trash. Among these are bricks for the construction of buildings (similar to cement hollow blocks) and trash recycled to become vermisoil as organic fertilizer.

Innovative practices are not conceptualized in a vacuum; these initiatives need the vision of incumbent local chief executives who want to see some positive changes in their respective localities to enhance their services and fulfill their duties as true servants of the people. These practices can be replicated, bearing in mind that one size does not fit all; and for local duty bearers to always think they are placed in their positions due to the support of the people during elections. Practices to enhance local governance should be the LGU chief executives’ way of “paying back” the people who have made them who they are today.

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