UNIT II
BRIEF HISTORY OF PHILIPPINE
LOCAL GOVERNANCE
Introduction
This unit delves on the evolution of local government in the
Philippines. It is divided into nine sections with each section corresponding to
a period of development. The periods of the development of local government
are: the Pre-Conquest Period; the Spanish Era; the Revolutionary Period; the
American Epoch; the Commonwealth; the Third Republic; Martial Law and
After; the Fourth Republic; and the Provisional Government of 1986 and the
Fifth Republic.
To facilitate better understanding and easier internalization of the
history of Philippine local governance, these periods will be divided into two
(2) lessons: Conquest and Before (Lesson 1) and Independence and After
(Lesson 2).
Objectives of the Unit
of the
Unit should be able to:
At theObjectives
end of this unit,
the student
 Trace the origin and discuss the development of local
governments under the nine periods of Philippine local
governance, and
 Take note of the significant developments in each period and
explain the legal foundation of each.
Suggested Timeframe:
2 hours
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Lesson 1. Local Government During the Period
of Conquest and Before
Lesson 1 Objectives
At the end of this lesson the student should be able to:
1. Discuss the history of local governance in the Philippines before the
occupation and during the revolutionary, American, and Commonwealth
periods; and
2. Enumerate the laws about local governance during these four (4)
periods.
Pre-Conquest Period
Before the conquest of the Philippine islands in the middle of the
sixteenth century and prior to the coming of Arab and Chinese traders and
missionaries in the early 14th Century, there was already in existence a system
of governance in the country known as the barangay. The term barangay was
derived from “balangay” meaning the sailboats used by the Malays who fled
the tyrannical rule of the Shri-Visjayan empire and settled in the southern part
of the country (Arcellana 1969:39).
The barangay was the political, economic and social organization of the
Philippines. The barangays, which were the equivalent of the city-states of
ancient Greece, had from 30 to 100 members composed mostly of kins whose
relations were thing as popular suffrage as the inhabitants were not granted the
right to choose their local officials, who were appointed by the central
government. It was only toward the close of the Spanish regime that some
political reforms were instituted. The Maura Law (1893), so called because it
was authored by Antonio Maura y Montaner, Minister of Colonies,
enfranchised local citizens within a limited degree, to select their officers,
subject to strict supervision by insular authorities with very limited authority
(Romani and Thomas 1954:120).
Under the Maura Law, each town that contributed one thousand cedulas
annually to the central government was allowed to have a municipal council of
five members consisting of a municipal captain, chief lieutenant (teniente
mayor), and three lieutenants. The law also provided for the election of
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members of the council by a plurality vote. The municipal council prepared the
municipal budget generated from real property taxes and from fees and tolls.
The Revolutionary Period
The Malolos Constitution of 1899 provided for a democratic system of
local government specifically and essentially designed to encourage active
participation by the people in the local affairs as a means of promoting national
unity which was necessary at the time. The system of local government
established by the Malolos Constitution was characterized by the following
features, namely: 1) popular and direct election; 2) public sessions; 3)
publication of budgets, accounts, and important ordinances; 4) intervention of
the government and by the National Assembly, in appropriate cases, to prevent
provinces and municipalities from performing acts in excess of their powers to
the prejudice and detriment of the general welfare and individual interests; and
5) the determination of their taxing powers, in order that provincial and
municipal taxation may never be antagonistic to the system of taxation of the
state (cited by de Guzman, et. al., infra, quoting Art. 82, Title XI, Malolos
Constitution of 1899).
Each town had a set of officers composed of the chief of the town and
the headman for each barrio and three officials, one each for the office of
police and internal order, justice and civil registry, and taxes and property,
elected by a majority vote of the inhabitants who have distinguished
themselves by their high character, social position, and honorable conduct. The
chief of the town, the headman of each barrio, and the three aforementioned
officials constituted the popular assembly. The chief of the town served as
president of the assembly; the headman, the vice president; and the justice and
civil registry official, secretary of the assembly. The town chiefs, constituted
into an assembly, elected the chief of the province and three councilors by a
majority vote, the duties of whom correspond to those of the officials in the
municipal level. The provincial council was composed of the chief of the
province, as its president, and the chief of the capital town and the three
officials, as members. The representatives of the province to the Revolutionary
Congress were elected by the town chiefs by a majority vote.
The American Epoch
The system of government established in the Philippines by the
American colonial masters was characterized by centralism. Local
governments had very little control over local affairs.
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The American colonial masters established the municipality. The first
municipalities established had a municipal council composed of a President,
who was its head, and the headmen of the barrios constituting the municipality.
The Schurman Commission introduced the election, by word of mouth, of the
President by the town residents. The election results, however, are to be
approved by the American Commanding Officer of the town. Like the head of
the municipal council under General Order No. 43 of 1899, the President was
assisted by the heads of the composite villages. The acts of the municipal
officials were subject to the absolute control of the American military officials,
who were responsible only to the central government.
The shift to civilian government sort of modified the highly centralized
military government in the islands. That President McKinley intended to shed
off some of the powers of the central government and give autonomy to local
governments is evident in his Instruction of April 7, 1890. He specifically
directed the Philippine Commission to establish:
“… municipal government in which the natives of the
islands… shall be afforded the opportunity to manage their own
local affairs to the fullest extent of which they are capable, and
subject to the least degree of supervision and control. In the
distribution of power among the governments, the presumption
is always to be in favor of the smaller subdivision, so that all
the powers which can properly be exercised by the municipal
government shall be vested in that government… (T)he central
government… shall have no direct administration except in
matters of a purely general concern and shall only have such
supervision and control over the local government as may be
necessary to serve and enforce faithful and efficient
administration by local officials.”
In accordance with and pursuant to the aforequoted instruction of
President McKinley, the Philippine Commission enacted into law Act No. 82
and Act No. 83 which provided for the organization and government of
municipalities and for the establishment of provinces, respectively. Under the
first law, each municipality was headed by a President who was its chief
executive. The other officials of the town are a Secretary, a Treasurer, and a
Chief of Police. Each town had a council, which was the legislative body. The
council had the President as its presiding officer with a representative each of
the barrios comprising the town as members.
Under Act No. 83, each provincial government had a Governor, who
was the chief executive of the province and presiding officer of the provincial
council, a Treasurer, and a Supervisor, who was later replaced by a Division
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Superintendent of Schools. The Governor was elected, at first, by the
councilors of the municipalities constituting the provinces and, later, by
popular vote. No matter how good intentioned, the McKinley instructions were
never realized due to the lack of capable local government officials, a situation
which was the direct effect of the long domination of the local government
units by the central government. Central control of local units was rationalized
as it was necessary to control the numerous military struggles against the
United States.
The Commonwealth
The approval and adoption of the 1935 Constitution paved the way for
the institution of the Philippine Commonwealth. Under Sec. 10, Art. VII
thereof, the President exercised general supervision over all local government
units subject to the provisions of law, which power the President exercised
through the Executive Bureau of the Department of Interior. Financial
supervision over local governments was, however, later transferred to the
Department of Finance. The Department of Interior was abolished in 1950 and
was replaced by the Division of Local Government in the Office of the
President of the Philippines.
During this period, there was a shift towards centralization primarily
due to the strong leadership of President Manuel L. Quezon who advocated for
a strong central government with its chief executive exercising control over
local units. City mayors were appointed by the President from 1936 to 1940.
The police service was nationalized. The President had the power to define the
boundaries of local government units as well as to merge and divide existing
ones.
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Lesson 2. Local Government During the Period
of Independence and After
Lesson 2 Objectives
At the end of this lesson the student should be able to:
1. Discuss the development of local governance in the Philippines
during the Third Republic, Martial Law and after, the Fourth Republic, and the
Provisional Government of 1986 and the Fifth Republic; and
2. Explain the legal bases of the development of local governance
during these periods.
The Third Republic
The declaration of Philippine independence in 1946 instituted the Third
Republic of the Philippines with a unitary system of government. During this
period there was a remarkable shift to decentralization. The momentum of
decentralization was punctuated by the incorporation of one whole article on
local government in the 1973 Constitution.
There was a good number of pieces of legislation granting autonomy to
local government units through the decentralization of more powers and a
reduction of central control over local government. The more significant of
these legislative enactments were Republic Act Numbered 2259, which made
members of city councils such as mayors, vice mayors, and councilors elective.
R.A. No. 2370, otherwise known as the Barrio Charter, later revised by
R.A. No. 3590, which recognized the barrio as a legal entity and empowering
its inhabitants to elect the barrio officials. R.A. No. 2264, popularly known as
the Local Autonomy Act granted extensive taxing powers to local governments
and the power to appropriate funds for the promotion of the general welfare,
and R.A. No. 5185, otherwise known as the Decentralization Act of 1967
introduced some modifications in the spectrum of local governance. These
innovations were, namely: the grant of authority to provincial and city
governments to supplement national extension services; the surrender of
control by the national government of certain local matters; increase in the
share of provinces in internal revenue collections on the basis of population
and land area; and transfer form the President to the provincial governor of the
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power to appoint officials including, but not limited to, the provincial
agriculturist and provincial assessor.
Martial Law and After
By virtue of Proclamation No. 1081 of September 21, 1972, the entire
country was placed under Martial Law. At the time, the Constitutional
Convention of 1971 was in the process of handcrafting a fundamental law for
the land to replace the 1935 organic law. This basic law is now known in the
annals of Philippine political history as the 1973 Constitution.
Under the 1973 Constitution, the President was allowed to continue
exercising legislative power, which covered the power to create, divide, merge,
abolish, and alter the boundaries of local government units. With local
elections suspended, the President also exercised the power to remove and
appoint local officials, thereby drastically changing the entire picture of local
governance.
During the martial law regime, the barrio was renamed barangay and
the council, sanggunian. Thus, the various local legislative councils
metamorphosed to sanggunian. The provincial council, the city council, and
the municipal council were renamed sangguniang panlalawigan, sangguniang
panglungsod, and sangguniang bayan, respectively. The barangay council was
renamed sangguniang barangay. A barangay justice system, more popularly
called Katarungang Barangay, also dotted the political picture.
During this period, citizen assemblies were created by virtue of P.D.
No. 86, on December 31, 1972. A few days after, on January 5, 1973, the
citizen assemblies metamorphosed to barangays through P.D. No. 86-A. On
the third anniversary of the declaration of martial law, the barrios were
declared as barangays.
P.D. No. 826 renamed the provincial board and city and municipal
boards of councils as sangguniang bayan. P.D. No. 877 of January 21, 1976
created the Katipunan ng mga Sanggunian, an umbrella organization of all the
Sangguniang Bayan in the provinces and cities, including Metropolitan Manila.
The Pampook na Katipunan ng mga Sanggunian was organized at the regional
level in accordance with P.D. No. 925 of April 24, 1976. The PKS was
composed of all the members of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan and
Sangguniang Panglungsod and their presiding officers.
Another political experiment of the martial law regime is the
Kabataang Barangay, a youth organization. Formed through P.D. No. 684,
dated April 15, 1975, the KB was composed of all barangay residents who are
below 18 years of age but not lower than 15. The KB was administered by a
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chairman with the assistance of 6 KB leaders chosen by the barangay youth
assembly members from among themselves. The KB chairman was an exofficio member of the barangay council. In view of the KB chairman’s
membership in the barangay council, the barangay captain exercised the power
of general administrative supervision over the affairs of the youth organization.
The President of the Philippines assumed and actually exercised the
power of appointing local elective officials whose term of office expired on
December 31, 1975. The exercise of the power to appoint local government
officials was authorized by the people in a referendum held much earlier on
February 27, 1975. With the election of provincial governors and city and
municipal mayors on January 31, 1980, the election through popular suffrage
of local officials with a fixed term of office was finally restored.
The 1973 Constitution, so-called because it was considered ratified on
January 17, 1973, recognized the significant role of local government in
national development. It mandated the State to “guarantee and promote the
autonomy of local government units, especially the barangays, to ensure their
fullest development as self-reliant communities” (Sec. 10, Art. II). To
encourage local governments to attain fiscal independence and sufficiency in
consonance with the spirit of the abovementioned constitutional mandate, the
1973 Constitution empowered each local government to create its own sources
of revenue and to define taxes that may be levied and to actually levy such
taxes subject to such limitations as may be provided by law. Cognizant of the
role of local governments in the solution of problems common to them, the
1973 Constitution encouraged local government units to group together, or
consolidate or coordinate their efforts, services and resources for purposes
commonly beneficial to them (Sec. 2, Art. IV).
Under the 1973 Constitution, a local government unit may only be
created, divided, merged, abolished or its boundary substantially altered with
the approval of the majority of the votes cast in the unit or units affected (Sec.
3, Art. XI). Also under the 1973 Constitution, the State is mandated to enact
into law a local government code with an effective system of recall (Sec. 2,
Art. XI).
The guarantee of local autonomy in the 1973 Constitution
notwithstanding, the trends and developments that unfurled during the martial
law regime pointed to the surrender of local autonomy and the concentration of
authority to the central government which substantially diminished powers,
functions, and responsibilities of the local government units. De Guzman and
Reforma (1990), infra, enumerated six manifestations of increased central
control over local matters, namely: (1) the exercise by the executive of
legislative power which included the merger, creation, or abolition of local
government entities; (2) expanded presidential power over local officials; (3)
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nationalization of police; (4) exercise by the central government of the power
to regulate infrastructures and establishments devoted to tourism promotion;
(5) implementation of top-down approach in planning; and (6) the creation of
too many and sometimes overlapping government offices that supervised
different facets of local government affairs.
The Fourth Republic
The Fourth Republic was inaugurated on June 30, 1981, in accordance
with the amendments introduced in 1981 to the 1973 Constitution following
the lifting of martial law on January 17, 1981. The enactment of the Local
Government Code (Batas Pambansa Blg. 337, February 10, 1983), constituted
the most significant accomplishment of the New Republic pertaining to local
government.
Two other events marked the existence of the Fourth Republic,
namely: the election of barangay officials on May 17, 1982 as prescribed by
Batas Pambansa Blg. 222, of March 22, 1982, which completed the restoration
of the election of local officials by direct popular suffrage, and conversion of
the Ministry of Local Government and Community Development into a
Ministry of Local Government. The former’s community development
function was transferred to the Ministry of Human Settlements. The MLG had
the mandate of developing the capability of local government officials and
strengthening the administrative capability of local units (Sec. 4, E.O. 777).
The Provisional Government of 1986
and the Fifth Republic
Corazon C. Aquino was inducted into office on February 25, 1986 as
President of the Philippines, replacing Ferdinand E. Marcos. On March 25 of
the same year, President Aquino issued Proclamation No. 3 ushering in a
provisional government which was revolutionary in nature. Proclamation No. 3
provided for a provisional Constitution, also known as the Freedom
Constitution, which was in substance the 1973 Constitution.
The ratification of the new Constitution on February 2, 1987 marked
the coming into being of the Fifth Republic. The 1987 Constitution
incorporates one whole article on local government which makes the
provinces, cities, municipalities, and barangays as the territorial and political
subdivisions of the Philippines and ordains the establishment of autonomous
regions in Muslim Mindanao and the Cordilleras (Sec. 1, Art. X). The most
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significant provision of Article X is Section 2 which proclaims that the
political subdivisions of the country shall enjoy autonomy. Furthermore, Sec. 3
thereof mandates the enactment by Congress of a Local Government Code.
Pursuant to and in compliance with aforesaid constitutional mandate,
Congress enacted R.A. No. 7160 on October 10, 1991 providing for a Local
Government Code. The LGC or Code, for brevity, has been undergoing
implementation, thereafter.
Activity
Below is a three-column table. On the first column, you write
nine (9) periods of the development of Philippine local governance. On
second column, write two significant events corresponding to each period
indicate the basis of each significant event or development in the
column.
the
the
and
last
After accomplishing the task, tear/cut off the page containing the
table and submit it to your tutor for evaluation. Be sure that you have
written your name on it.
Periods of
Philippine Local
Governance
Two (2) Significant Events
Legal Bases of
Significant Events
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Unit Summary
This unit has provided you with historical perspectives on the
development of local governments in the Philippines. Particularly, it has
presented the history of local governance in the Philippines under nine (9)
periods. It also has emphasized the legal and constitutional bases of important
events in these periods.
You may now proceed to tackle the next unit.