We Continue to Stand for the Culture of Good Governance

The city of Naga has proven one thing – that having an effective local government, with participatory planning, efficient and transparent financial management and the strong political will of the local officials to carry out reforms, leads the way to economic and social development. The Naga City government opened its doors to the people and addressed their concerns, such as decent housing for the urban poor and the campaign against illegal gambling. Through the “Empowerment Ordinance” and the Naga City People’s Council, government plans were geared towards programs and projects that effectively hastened development. The city government knew what it should do because it kept in touch with what the people’s needs. Within 10 years, the “Heart of Bicol” was lifted to a 1st class city from being a 3rd class city in terms of income level. 

CODE-NGO, with its members and partners, continues its commitment to making good governance as shown in Naga City the norm, not the exception, in local governments. In the coming weeks, civil society organizations (CSOs) in 12 municipalities in the provinces of Laguna, Leyte, Zamboanga del Norte, Maguindanao, Davao del Norte, and Davao Oriental will embark on a process of further strengthening their engagement with the local government towards good governance. This will be done through the Civil Society Report Card (CSRC), a tool to generate feedback from the CSOs regarding the performance of the local government units (LGUs). Volunteer CSRC interviewers from the local CSOs were trained in August 2012 to conduct the first round of the CSRC. 

The CSRC is designed to assess LGUs through a survey of CSO leaders, particularly in terms of the LGU’s performance in the delivery of basic services and in transparent and  and participatory development planning and budgeting. The target respondents of this survey are the leaders of CSOs – including accredited CSOs and other registered and informal organizations in the municipality. The results of the survey will be translated into a “report card” reflecting an evaluation of the LGU from the local CSOs. The CSRC results will then be presented to the concerned mayor and other officials of the local government. It is hoped that, through this, concerned organized citizens will find a way to constructively engage local governments and become part of improving the LGU’s performance.

This round of the CSRC process marks the beginning of institutionalizing the practice of good governance through this citizen’s feedback mechanism and other similar mechanisms that are created or made available by CSOs. The CSRC will be improved through time, and CODE-NGO seeks to scale-up and spread the process to many other LGUs. CODE-NGO’s CSRC report card aims to complement the Citizens’ Satisfaction Index System (CSIS) that the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) is developing. The CSIS is an instrument that seeks to measure the satisfaction of local citizens viz the performance of the LGU. 

Secretary Jesse Robredo was seen to have continued his legacy of good governance in the DILG as he did in serving as the mayor of Naga. He supported the CSIS, as well as instituted the Full Disclosure Policy (FDP), the Seal of Good Housekeeping (SGH), and the Performance Challenge Fund (PCF), among other programs of the DILG, in the hope that local governments will step-up their own processes of transparency, responsiveness and accountability.   

In the light of the CSRC and many similar activities, CODE-NGO, its member networks and partners in civil society and in government continue to stand for integrity, transparency, accountability and citizens’ participation, as Sec. Jesse fruitfully did in his lifetime. — By: Sandino Soliman, Project Coordinator, CODE-NGO