182 Asian Review of Public Administration,

ASIAN REVIEW OF Vol.PUBLIC

XII, No. 1ADMINISTRATION
(January-June 2000)

Empowering the Local Government: The Naga City Experience

JAIME D. JACOB, House of Representatives

Republic of the Philippines

THIS PAPER presents the experience of Naga City insofar as empowerment is concerned,
focusing on the initiatives that were taken to make the city government more transparent,
more accountable and with a higher level of integrity.

What will be presented are real world programs which address a whole myriad of
concerns specific to local governance of which transparency, accountability and integrity are
merely parts of. This is in consonance with the principle that transparency, accountability
and integrity cannot be realized in isolation but can be actualized only as part of a program
on improving local governance.

This paper consists of five parts:

1. Why Naga City. This will try to spell out the reasons why Naga City was
selected among the reference cities for this discussion.

2. An Empowering Environment. This will provide an overview of the

landmark legislation that unshackled local authorities in the Philippines
from the grips of central government enabling them to take charge of their
own future.

3. Empowering the Bureaucracy. This will discuss the first initiative of the
Naga City government to inject integrity, accountability and efficiency in
the local bureaucracy highlighting the concrete steps the city took.

4. Empowering the People. This will review the evolution of the participatory
processes in Naga City showing how the city started with a multi-channeled
consultative process before coming out with its present form.

5. Lessons from Empowerment. This will sum up the lessons that can be
learned from Naga City’s experience.

It is hoped that after the brief presentation, additional insights will be gained that can
help draw out a preliminary framework to improve integrity, strengthen accountability and
improve transparency in government.

Why Naga City?

Naga City is less than an hour South of Manila by plane. It is a small city with only 127,000
inhabitants in a 77 square kilometer area. Despite its miniscule size, it rose to national
Asian Review of Public Administration, Vol. XII, No. 1 (January-June 2000)

EMPOWERING NAGA CITY 183

prominence when it came up with innovative programs that shattered the myth of mediocrity
in local governance. Taking advantage of the expanded powers and prerogatives of local
government units under the 1991 Local Government Code, Naga City took it upon itself to,
among others:

• Institutionalize productivity and efficiency in the local bureaucracy;

• Maximize the participation of civil society in local governance;

• Harness the synergy from the partnership of government and the private
sector to sustain its programs;

• Pioneer the sharing and pooling of resources among 15 neighboring local

government units for commonly beneficial projects and activities; and

• Put in a place a rapid response emergency rescue system.

All these initiatives did not go unnoticed. Naga City became the recipient of numerous
awards both here and abroad. Its urban poor program was named one of the Top 40 Best
Practices during the Habitat II Conference in Turkey, its mechanisms for participatory
governance was likewise accorded the same award two years ago in Dubai, United Arab
Emirates. At the national level, suffice it to mention that the Asian Institute of Management,
the Ford Foundation and the Local Government Academy made Naga a consistent recipient
of their annual Best Practices Awards in Local Governance (or the Galing Pook Awards)
elevating the city to their Hall of Fame.

And of course, the then city mayor Jesse M. Roberto was named one of the outstanding
young men of the Philippines by the Philippine Jaycees and the Gerry Roxas Foundation, and
later one of the outstanding young persons of the world by the Junior Jaycees International
during its World Convention in Japan, all for good governance.

So that is Naga City—small in size but impressive in its track record.

An Empowering Environment

Local governments in the Philippines would not have attained the dynamism that they exhibit
now had it not been for the 1991 Local Government Code. The Code’s adoption breathed
freedom to local government, liberating them from “Imperial Manila’s” stream of edicts
which for decades drowned local initiative and stunted growth in the countryside.

Essentially, this law expanded the powers and prerogatives of local governments, increased
their share of the national income, expanded their sources of local revenue, and institutionalized
the participation of nongovernment and people’s organizations in governance.

Today, decisions that would otherwise require national government approval, or worse,
were its exclusive domain, could now be made by local authorities themselves. Local
184 ASIAN REVIEW OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

governments likewise now enjoy a higher degree of fiscal autonomy weaning them from utter
dependence on the national government. And unlike in the past when people’s participation
meant nothing more than seasonal elections, today, it meant actual partnership with government
in policy making, implementation and evaluation.

Indeed, the 1991 Local Government Code provided an expanded legal environment that
allowed local authorities to innovate, experiment and test new paradigms for local governance.
This fertile environment paved the way for Naga City’s initiatives which ultimately improved
accountability, transparency, integrity and cut down the inefficiency, corruption and mediocrity
so often associated with local bureaucracy.

Empowering the Bureaucracy

The first step to having an empowered local government is to have an empowered bureaucracy.
Thus, the first thing the administration did was to overhaul itself. This was done through the
Productivity Improvement Program (PIP) which gave focus both on employee empowerment
(people change) and improvements on systems and procedures (system change) to upgrade
the quality and quantity of frontline services.

Specifically, it sought to (a) reduce to the barest minimum the waiting time for service
delivery; (b) induce and sustain peak productivity levels in all departments and offices;
(c) encourage employees to come up with viable ideas and suggestions to further improve
productivity; (d) upgrade the skills and competence of employees through regular seminars,
workshops, trainings and similar activities; (e) institutionalize a cost reduction system; and
(f) setup a feedback mechanism for the public.

Exercising its expanded powers, the administration implemented a better compensation

package for the rank-and-file; reorganized the bureaucracy based on aptitude and competence;
and activated a Merit and Promotions Board that eliminated patronage and a reward-and-
punishment scheme for achievers and erring workers, respectively.

This was followed by the following concrete and practical actions which boosted morale,
improved efficiency and increased productivity, in the process empowering the bureaucracy
to make it a capable partner of civil society.

Setting a Vision-Mission and Slogan

The city government, in conjunction with representatives from the private sector, formulated
the city’s vision and mission and its slogan that focused everyone’s mind and effort to the
tasks at hand.

Productivity Seminars

Seminar workshops on various productivity enhancing techniques and methodologies were

conducted for every department and working unit. Among the topics taken were the 5-S,
action planning and time management.
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EMPOWERING NAGA CITY 185

Contract of Deliverables

Each department and work unit were required to post in a conspicuous spot within their
office a list of frontline services they perform, the personnel in charge of each service, and
the minimum time needed by that personnel to complete his task.

Very Innovative Person (VIP) Contest

To generate suggestions on how to improve systems and procedures and cut down on operating
costs and waste, the VIP contest which rewards winning suggestions were conducted annually.
It is estimated that the city government saves no less than P1.5 million per year out of the
suggestions implemented.

Weekly Management Committee Meetings

A meeting of the city’s management committee presided over by the mayor is held weekly.
The committee consists of the members of city legislature, department heads, chiefs of
offices and key officers of independent working units of the city government. It enables the
middle managers to apprise the mayor on a weekly basis of the progress of their respective
departments and offices determining, in the process, the inroads made by the program in the
day-to-day operations of the city government.

Institutional Feedback Mechanism

To enhance monitoring and evaluation, the PIP committee provides suggestion boxes and
conducts periodic surveys to city hall clientele to determine how the people assess the quality
of frontline services delivery.

Productivity Improvement Circles (PICs)

At the department and working unit level, PICs were established among personnel
performing related functions. Among others, it seeks to evaluate current working conditions
obtaining in each department and suggests ways and means of how they can be improved.
The best performing PICs are given recognition by years’ end.

Annual Search for Outstanding Departments, Officials and Employees.

Every year culminates with the search and recognition of outstanding departments, officials
and employees. This serves as an incentive for everyone to excel and contribute to the goals
of the city government.

Employees’ Day

To strengthen teamwork, the city government holds inter-department summer sportsfest every
summer in cooperation with the employees’ association.
186 ASIAN REVIEW OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

On the whole, the PIP transformed the employees of the Naga City Government into
public servants driven not by rules and regulations but by a vision and a mission—empowered
public servants ready and confident to enter into partnerships with civil society.

Empowering the People

People participation in local governance in Naga City went through several stages maturing
into the passage of the Empowerment Ordinance. It all started with the Naga City Socialized
Program for Empowerment and Economic Development (Naga SPEED) and the mandatory
membership of NGOs and POs in local special bodies, and later with the institutionalization
of private sector and government partnership through the Empowerment Ordinance.

Naga SPEED

Naga SPEED is a multi-tiered consultative mechanism through which specific sectors, groups
or the entire constituency can participate in identifying development priorities and stamp
their mandate—or disapproval—on major policy issues.

This system addresses a very basic need in so far as effective local governance is
concerned: for the people and their local officials to forge and pursue a common development
agenda. Naga SPEED succeeded in this area by providing Naga City’s constituency with the
channels to have a say in the determination of the priorities of their government. The end
result is that the city government gained the support and participation of their constituency in
most of its programs and policies.

One noteworthy impact of Naga SPEED is the mainstreaming of the silent majority—the
unschooled, the unmoneyed and the powerless—within the priority setting and decisionmaking
process of the Naga City government. This sector, whose importance to government officials
rise and wane with elections and has nary a chance to pass upon government policies, has
finally given a niche in local governance.

Naga SPEED actually complemented the Local Government Code—which mandated

membership of NGOs in the local development councils, local health board, local school
board, local peace and order council, and the local pre-qualifications, bids and awards
committee. Naga SPEED reached out to the people rather than relying solely on their
representative NGOs sitting in the local special bodies.

The channels utilized by Naga SPEED are as follows:

• The Expanded Naga City Development Council (Pagtiripon para sa

Kauswagan) which is composed of elected city officials and city department
heads, village heads, sectoral representatives and accredited NGOs and
POs—each of different persuasion with different interests. The Expanded
City Development Council is tapped to gain consensus on the thrust and
framework of the medium-term city development plan and in its annual
review.
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EMPOWERING NAGA CITY 187

• Sectoral Forum (Orolay-olay sa Sektor) which is tapped to detail the

programs for the urban poor, the youth, women and senior citizens, farmers,
business and industry, and members of the informal sector. It has become
an effective venue for solving problems which arise in the course of program
implementation.

• Community Consultation (Konsultasyon sa Komunidad) seeks the consensus

of a neighborhood or small village as to the specific projects and activities
which must be undertaken in their locality in support of the city development
program.

• Surveys (Pulso kan Banwaan) are employed to give planners and

decisionmakers a quick feel of the sentiments of the people on certain
issues. They are also used to generate data for planning and evaluation
purposes.

• Referendum (Mandalo kan Kagabsan) is used to secure the mandate of the

entire constituency on matters of great importance to the city such as
measures which would impact on succeeding city administrations. This
was resorted to by the city in 6 August 1993 to gain consensus on the
opening of a new central business district, construction of a central bus
terminal, the color-coding of public transport (in effect since its ratification
by the people), and the flotation of bonds (pending due to cost
considerations).

One salutary effect of Naga SPEED is the optimal allocation of resources as each
expenditure of public funds inevitably results in the greatest number of people getting what
they perceive as their greatest good within the framework of a larger medium term development
plan. That is growth in a democracy at work.

Naga SPEED further edified the human spirit replacing the people’s attitude of
subservience and dependence on government with one of responsible partnership with
government. In a sense, it transformed the people from being the governed to being an
integral part of government itself.

The Empowerment Ordinance

Naga SPEED laid out multiple feedback channels and the Local Government Code provided
NGOs and POs a say in local special bodies but there were still many areas of local governance
which remained the sole enclave of public officials. The task of further opening up people
participation was left to the Empowerment Ordinance.1

The Empowerment Ordinance of Naga City established the structure to achieve active
partnership between the city government and the people of Naga in the formulation,
implementation and evaluation of government policies, projects and activities.
188 ASIAN REVIEW OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

The Ordinance expressly declared that the city government is open to a partnership with
duly accredited NGOs and POs; it laid out a clear process of accreditation; provided for their
organization into an autonomous council, now named as the Naga City People’s Council
(NCPC); and gave such organization the right to be represented in the different bodies within
the city government including those which may be created in the future.

The NCPC is at present composed of 44 accredited NGOs and POs from thirteen different
sectors with the representative from each sector comprising the Board of Directors. These
sectors are (1) urban poor, (2) agricultural cooperative, (3) nonagricultural cooperative,
(4) business, (5) labor, (6) academe, (7) senior citizens, (8) women, (9) youth and children,
(10) NGO, (11) veterans, (12) peasant, and (13) transport.

Among the powers of the NCPC are:

1. Vote and participate in the deliberation, conceptualization, implementation

and evaluation of projects, activities and programs of the city government;

2. propose legislation;

3. participate and vote at the committee level of the city legislature; and

4. act as the people’s representative in the exercise of their constitutional

rights to information on matters of public concern and of access to official
records and documents.

Thus, the NCPC are now the ones sitting in the Local Government Code-mandated
special bodies which are the Development Council, the Health Board, the Peace and Order
Council, the School Board and the Pre-Qualifications, Bids and Awards Committee (PBAC).
These special bodies are charged with formulating programs and policies relating to
development, health, peace and order, and education. The PBAC, on the other hand, takes
care that the bidding of projects requiring private contractors are done in a transparent and
above board manner. In addition, these special bodies monitor and evaluate how the city
implements these programs and policies. Membership in these special bodies therefore is
already a potent tool to influence local governance.

The NCPC further sits in 31 standing committees of the city legislature positioning it to
influence local laws and policy.2 As we all know, the nitty-gritty of legislative work happens
at the committee level. This is where laws are hammered out to their near-final version
before being passed upon by the legislature in plenary session. Membership in committees
therefore placed the NCPC right where they could influence lawmaking the most.

NCPC representatives likewise sits in the Naga City Investment Board not only making
up half of its total membership but also occupying its vice-chairmanship. This is based on
the principle that an investment incentive code’s primary goal is to generate jobs and income
for the people. What better way to preserve that goal than to have NCPC sit in the Investment
Board.
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EMPOWERING NAGA CITY 189

The NCPC is also present in the Housing and Urban Development Board and indeed, in
most other task forces, committees and other bodies created by the city government in the
course of planning, implementing and evaluating its development programs.

Lessons in Empowerment

The experience of Naga City in empowerment underscores the following:

1. The promotion of transparency, accountability and integrity can best be

pursued as part of larger programs in improving local governance;

2. Empowered employees and improved systems and procedures are essential

elements in promoting efficiency and integrity in the workplace. Energized
by a lofty vision, a mission and a slogan, they become an unstoppable force
for growth and good governance.

3. The NGO/PO may now be an integral part of the city government but being
answerable to their own publics, they remain fiercely independent, non-
partisan and highly principled partners making them effective agents of
transparency and accountability in the city government.

4. Laws, rules and regulations do not make for transparency, accountability

and integrity. People participation in local governance do.

5. NGOs and POs, and the private sector in general, have too often been
tagged as obstructionists to the programs of government. What is
conveniently ignored is that NGOs, POs and others in the private sector
have resources, unique capabilities and specializations lacking in government.
Matched with the mandate, authority and resources of the public sector,
these NGOs and POs become formidable partners for sustainable
development.

NOTES

1 Ordinance No. 95-055 formally entitled as the “Ordinance Initiating a System for
Partnership in Local Governance Between the City Government and the People of
Naga City.”

2 These standing committees are: Rules and Privileges, Blue Ribbon, Appropriations,
Infrastructure, Land Use, Social Development, Education, Health, Agriculture, Trade
and Industry, Market Affairs, Public Safety, Youth Development, Manpower
Development, Sports Development, Laws, Ordinances and Reorganization, Barangay
(Village) Affairs, Tourism and Foreign Relations, Public Utilities, Cooperatives, Culture
and Heritage, Family, Games and Amusement, Consumers’ Protection, Women, Public
Affairs and Information, Environment and Ecology, Children, Urban Poor, External
Affairs and NGO/PO Accreditation.