This year’s round of accreditation of civil society organizations (CSOs) in the local Sanggunian has an important activity added to the usual activities being done every time after Philippine elections take place.

At the start of the three-year term of local officials, in this case the mayors, vice-mayors and the city or municipal councilors, a process of accreditation and reconstitution of local special bodies (LSBs) will be called by the local government unit (LGU) and guided by the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG). CSOs may apply for accreditation to the LGU where they are located. The accredited CSOs will then have the opportunity to sit in LSBs. The LSBs are venues of participation where citizens and citizens groups take part in the planning and governance of the LGU. LSBs include the local health board, the local peace and order council, and the local development council (LDC) which is the body that may input to the annual investment plan (AIP) of the LGU, particularly in the portion where the local development fund is found. The composition of the LDC would be the different local offices and non-government organizations and people’s organizations (NGOs and POs which are now part of CSOs) that should be at least 25% of the LDC. But the functionality of the LDCs has been lamented by participatory local governance advocates as throughout its history most LDCs are not functioning as it was envisioned. LDCs become “rubber stamps” of LGU plans, or members from the CSOs are given “token” participation as the plans are merely presented to them and not deliberated with CSOs. Apart from this, both the CSOs and the LGUs cite instances where the ones seated in the LDCs only bring in the interest of one sector or one organization and not the underserved section of the LGU as a whole. It may seem that CSO participation has not been genuine in most cases.

With technical inputs from some CSOs the DILG endeavors to support the inclusivity of CSOs at the local level through the new Memorandum Circular (MC) 2019-72. An added process to the usual call for accreditation and reconstitution is the CSO Conference fully supported (logistically and financially) by the DILG through the Support to Local Government Program (SLGP). The CSO Conference provides a venue for CSOs at the local level to gather and be informed about the accreditation and reconstitution process. Some instructions on how to be an effective CSO network in the city or municipality is also shared in the CSO Conference. The CSO Conference’s intention was also to consolidate like-minded CSOs to work for common agenda in the city or municipality and to start the conversation of who the representatives will be for the LDCs and how the representatives should give feedback to the wider CSO groups. The timetable for the CSO Conferences happened in the first two weeks of August 2019 (from August 1 to 10) which the LGUs across the nation complied with.

The input on Local CSO Networking and the conduct of the CSO Conference may be a marked difference from the previous calls for accreditation to the LGU. However, CSOs and especially CSO networks are called to remain vigilant and track the participation of CSOs at the local level if the new process has added to the functionality of the LDCs and the LSBs in general. CODE-NGO encourages its members and member-base organizations to be accredited in the LGU to be part of its local governance through genuine participation in the LDC.