The public governance system: building dream cities in the Philippines

Since 1986, the Philippines has struggled to establish a democracy capable of addressing the needs of all levels of society. Political turmoil has shaken public confidence in governing institutions and impeded improvements in the quality of life. This paper examines the impact of the public governance system (PGS), in transforming the management of cities in the Philippines.

The PGS was developed by the Institute for Solidarity in Asia (ISA) and started with eight pioneering cities and interest continues to grow at the municipal, provincial, and national levels. The PGS offers participating institutions a sequence of constructive steps and incentives to achieve reform goals and make democracy work. The programme addresses several public governance concerns including:

• the tendency to focus on personalities rather than institutions; on the short term, rather than the long term; and on tactics, rather than on strategy.
• the need for greater professionalism and integrity in public life in order to undertake developmental challenges and serve the people.
• the need to provide a clear path through a morass of complexity, corruption, and division to arrive at practical, sustainable solutions.
• the need to increase citizen participation and improve the transparency and efficiency of government.

Undaunted by the obstacles to reforming national government, the PGS programme envisages a bottom up approach and identifies promising localities and sectors in which to nurture pockets of good governance, involve citizens, and create anchors for future results.The paper draws attention to ISA’s use of the Balanced Scorecard, a strategic planning and management system originated at Harvard Business School, which translates strategy into concrete measures that communicate a vision to an organisation. A vital innovation of ISA’s system is that the community becomes a co-owner of the plan with the city.

The paper highlights several PGS results including:

• improvements in the business environment among the cities farthest along the governance pathway.
  
• re-election of mayors involved in ISA’s programme suggesting satisfaction of voters with PGS results

The PGS has proven to be an effective and popular strategic planning tool in the Philippines and the system may be adaptable to the needs of other countries.