Local Governance Review: The Case Of Marinduque Island, Philippines

Enacted in 1991, the Local Government Code (LGC) aimed to decentralize power and enhance local autonomy. It devolved responsibilities from the national government to local government units (LGUs), allowing them to manage local resources and services more effectively. Over the three decades of decentralization, this paper looked into the significant challenges and strategies faced by local government units in the lens of the Province of Marinduque. This review highlights the recurring problems and issues and responsive local governance practices in the areas of social, economic, environmental, and governance and politics, and responses made by the LGUs and the citizens of Marinduque to those problems experienced. Using survey questionnaire, key informant respondents were identified to represent sectors of farmer, fisherfolk, women, labor, youth, LGU, NGA, CSO and academe. The analysis reveals that although areas are seen to have notable gains of development, it is still beset by issues, problems and challenges. Identified challenges include limited resources and capacity of LGUs, financial constraints that hindered service delivery and community responsiveness, and incompetent leadership and governance including framework of policies. While local governance is grounded by challenges, LGUS and citizens of Marinduque continued to respond with innovative strategies focused on coordination between NGAs and LGUs, citizen empowerment to increase public support and participation, strengthening economic sustainability and resiliency, and policy-driven leadership for stable governance. The groundwork for effective decentralized governance has been laid but realization of the goal still requires continuous reforms in the praxis of local governance.