DILG taps pilot areas in Cebu for transparency

CEBU, Philippines - Interior and Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo announced he will make Cebu’s barangays as a pilot area for his full disclosure policy.

With this, Kaabag sa Sugbo, a network of Cebu-based non-government organizations which held its first summit yesterday, will sit down with the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) officials to discuss the matter so they could contribute in the development process of every local government unit in Cebu.

Robredo, the summit’s guest speaker, shared yesterday that he has sent the full disclosure policy to all provinces, municipalities, and cities for them to adopt.

“So with that policy, they have to be transparent. One participant suggested if we can also bring that down at the level of the barangay,” Anthony Dignadice, Kaabag’s chairperson, said.

In response, Robredo said it may be difficult right now because they are focusing on 1,000 provinces and cities. There are 42,000 barangays in the country.

“But he proposed that maybe we can pilot in Cebu and hopefully that full disclosure policy down to the level of the barangay, we can sit down with DILG on that,” added Dignadice, also executive director of Ramon Aboitiz Foundation, Inc.’s Education Unit, said.

The DILG is currently pushing for performance-driven LGUs in line with President Noynoy Aquino’s transparency and accountability for good governance.

Dignadice said that Kaabag, a network of 30 Cebu-based NGOs, is regularly participating in the development process of every LGU in Cebu.

In its first summit held yesterday, they conducted sessions on the NGO’s respective local experiences and best practices in various focused areas.

“We have shared goals, common advocacies, so it’s a way to hopefully work together as an NGO community and sharing our resources and expertise since we all, at the end of the day, while we are focused in several issues, we are all contributing towards attaining a shared goal,” he said.

Dignadice said that among the areas they are regularly helping to solve are the local governance, urban and rural development, sustainable environment, and human development.

“If there are also current and relevant issues of the day this committee also tackles them and we also come up with our response and solution to the issue. That’s part of the role of the Kaabag as a network,” he said. – (FREEMAN)