Will
Philippine local governments ever
amalgamate? Will city governments merge in the immediate future? What would
Ilocos Norte be like if municipal and city councils are reduced from twenty two
to four or two metropolitan councils? What would the region be if provincial
governments are abolish to create a super region, a hybrid type of metropolitanism
that redistributes power, alters boundary adjustments, and redefines the extent
of resource sharing and cooperative arrangements between and amongst local
government units? The rise of the Asian
century, the emergence and implications of the ASEAN integration, climate
change, sustaining community sustainability, information technology,
socio-demographic pressures and wealth generation may, sooner than later, push
local governments to merge in the next twenty years.
Amalgamation has emerged as a
buzzword particularly in the Asia-Pacific. Last year, some State Governments in
Australia announced their decision to merge many of its cities to create their
versions of future cities. The purpose was to create a new structure and metro
design that could accommodate growth and sustain the suite of services their
communities will need in the future. To reduce the disruptive socio-political,
legal and economic impacts of consolidation, proposed boundaries, community
interests, the history of a community, socio-economic indicators and efficient
delivery of local government services were taken into consideration.
Using the feedbacks derived
from public hearings, research, studies, surveys and public submissions, new
models were proposed and submitted for the government and community’s approval.
The reason for merging and abolition of local governments are: first, community
sustainability is threatened by socio-demographic pressures. Migration, food
security, natural disasters, employment needs, energy consumption, water, the
future of transport, environmental protection and lifestyle were drivers of
amalgamation. Second, some local governments were not generating enough revenue
to meet their operating requirements. These LGs could not meet long-term
infrastructure funding requirements. Experts noted that many of their cities
were operating on deficit and their financial stability outlook was either
moderate or weak. Their fiscal position was steadily deteriorating and not
improving. Australian local governments
perceived amalgamation as crucial to creating sustainable futures for
Australian communities.
Since the Meiji Restoration,
for 150 years, Japan, partly because of a strong central government and a well
synchronized zoning, planning and growth agenda, reduced its local governments
from 71, 314 municipal governments to 1,871 local governments today. Still
amalgamating, I learned that political parties and scholars continue to explore
and experiment on the most optimal sizes of LGs given resource requirements,
population decline, fiscal viability, tsunamis, natural disasters, education,
health and sanitation needs and welfare.
A law on special measure for municipal mergers was passed to give its
citizens the choice and power to propose or reject consolidation through a
referendum. A World Bank study took the Japanese experience as a model and
found some gains in amalgamation. Lower cost and cost-efficiency in public
service delivery; enhance administrative capacity in responding to natural
disasters and better fiscal position were seen as positive gains.
Now, what are the prospects
for local government amalgamation in the Philippines? What might be the drivers
or events that could push the abolition (barangay, municipal and provincial
governments) and creation of new local governments (metropolitan local
governments, stronger regional local and national administrative bodies)? Is
amalgamation the silver bullet to improve, once and for all, local and national
capacity to deliver efficient and effective public services? Is metropolitanism
good enough? What are the positive and negative impacts of amalgamation to
political dynasties, corruption, local economic growth, tourism, environmental
management and local finances?
There are more questions than
answers to the future of amalgamation in the Philippines but these drivers may
likely influence citizens and decision-makers to consolidate local government
units in the future: pressure from international financing institutions given
emerging trends. They may require nation-states to commit ad amalgamate as a
pre-condition for future loan applications and approval; the worsening impact
of natural disasters, food and water security and socio-demographics will push
the idea; rationalization of local government internal revenue allotments and
government subsidy due to the deteriorating local finances, fiscal perception
and revenues of municipal and secondary city governments and the call for more
transparency and accountability and of course future rankings and advocacies on
local government corruption could also push the amalgamation agenda.
In a crisis or state of
emergency scenario where the national government compels the merging of
municipal and city governments, multi-municipal metropolitan city governments or
a mega-city plus municipal governments may be created. Ilocos Norte via a Metropolitan Laoag City
may in the future pioneer the creation of agglomerated councils. Here some
municipalities may merge with Laoag in a two or three city districts consolidation
scenario. If Batac sustains its cityhood and fiscal viability say in the year
2030, it could implement, adopt or pioneer other forms of metropolitanism
otherwise it will be absorbed by a more efficient city in the future.
Today it appears that the country
is over-governed. We have too much of a fragmented government. We have a huge
lot of councilors, local chief and administrative executives running the
affairs of local governance. Imagine the current local government structure by
the numbers: 81 provinces, 144 cities, 1,490 municipalities, and yes, this is
just amazing, 42, 028 barangays! If you add them all up, you would get a
ridiculous total of 43,743 local government units in the Philippines. Well,
that is pioneering, I guess and it drives multiple redundancies (we get too
many signatures, fees, taxes, and missed opportunities) and local government
corruption.
At present, Malaysia has
around 146 local councils and Indonesia with roughly 900 million citizens only
have 419 local government s. Based on recent studies, local government
consolidation can help increase transparency and accountability levels, end
wasteful spending, reduce or help fight corruption and increase public
participation at the local level. The country’s local government code provides
a couple of mechanisms for citizens to initiate mergers. Voters do have the
power to streamline their governments.
engagedforesight.com
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