The Causes and Effects of the Local Government Code in the Philippines: Locked in a Status Quo of Weakly Decentralized Authority?

In 1991, the Local Government Code (LGC) of the Philippines endowed three distinct levels of government with substantial policy authority. While the LGC was designed to encourage local government units to be more self-reliant and promote economic development programmes tailored to local needs, clan politics, wide-spread corruption, and local elite incompetence have constrained improvements in the delivery of services and growth. Despite decentralization’s mixed record, the status quo established by the LGC has remained as a result of opposing pressures by empowered local elites and a central government averse to supplying them with additional power or resources. Efforts in recent years have instead focused on upgrading the quality of service delivery by improving local government reporting and accountability mechanisms, rather than addressing the structure of decentralization.