After listening to civil society organization (CSO) leaders, Mayor Viviane Alvarez decided to put in place a system to monitor performance of all government officials in 42 barangays of the municipality of Oras, Eastern Samar.

The demands of communities in the poblacion, along the coast facing Lipusan Bay, by the river, on the upland, and in an island, all were too familiar to her. During every planning-budgeting period in the last three years, her leadership and administration were stretched to its limits. Oras is the third largest municipality of the province of Eastern Samar with 34,760 people. A tremendous amount of resources was needed to fully develop the town, but its revenue share from the national treasury – Php 74 million a year – and locally generated income from an agriculture-based economy were meager. She strongly felt that there could be a better way to meet the communities’ demands.

The community leaders of Oras had presented to her the results of the CSOs Satisfaction Report Card (CSRC), a monitoring tool on how local government fare in governing and delivering services to the people.

Community leaders thought agriculture development, sustainable livelihood programs, and improvement of health and nutrition services (like treatment of schistosomiasis– acute and chronic disease caused by parasitic worms, provision of safe water and sanitary toilets) should be the three most important issues that the LGU should address.

They were not satisfied that illegal fishing and other illegal activities continue to proliferate.  The environment needs to be protected; people need to be prepared for disasters. Basic infrastructure is lacking, while peace and order remains a threat.

Mayor Alvarez and the local officials took these in as challenges to their work. Immediate work on selected findings would be done, she promised the CSO leaders. Later on, her administration would create a “Program of Government based on the People’s Agenda”, a product of collective discussion and leadership and based on the actual felt needs of the people.

But together with this promise came an idea: Make barangay government officials accountable to the people. Primarily, she wanted them to be responsive. Their plans, programs, and activities are expected to be formulated, reviewed, and monitored with people’s participation.

She initiated quarterly evaluation of good barangay governance and accorded corresponding incentives to best performing barangays. She also issued a policy statement that all barangay and municipal department offices should establish, strengthen, and sustain people’s monitoring mechanisms like the CSRC. The Mayor’s assistance to the barangays depends heavily now on results of monitoring their performance.

As a result, there is “renewed commitment among our LGU (local government unit) employees to public service; our barangay officials are active and cooperative; and there is unity among officials,” updated Mayor Alvarez.

Setting up a new system is definitely not easy. There are differences in understanding among the people, political leaders, and her fellow officials. The Local People’s Ordinance filed with the Sangguniang Bayan faces some SB members who are not yet convinced why people have to be given more power. The mayor, however, is committed to push for its passage.

The CSO leaders observed that mechanisms established by the Mayor can accelerate people’s participation in local governance. Character and genuine intent of the leader initiating the reform are indeed important.

However, when development reforms are accepted by a local chief executive and the legislative branch, then CSO networks have to be ready to be more active, regular, and consistent in participating in local governance. In Oras, the network members have proven their capacity. They have been chosen to represent their organizations in the formulation of the Executive-Legislative Agenda of the local government. Consistently, the results of the CSRC are being tackled and Mayor Alvarez is carefully studying LGU weaknesses, proposed recommendations in order to improve their performance.

Efren Hipe and Gina Dean were Area Coordinators of CODE-NGO’s Citizen Monitoring of LGU Performance (CML) Project.