DECENTRALIZING the country was one of the broad policy initiatives pursued by the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte from the very beginning of his term in office. "Decentralization" generally means the transfer of some responsibilities and authority from the national government to local government units (LGUs), with the objective of providing more responsive and effective governance. As a native Mindanaoan, President Duterte was keenly aware of the shortcomings of the "top-down" structure of the national government and presented his notion of decentralization as a key selling point of his candidacy.
While some significant progress has been made, it is probably fair to say that has been less than was hoped for; that is to be expected, given the impact of the pandemic that no one could have anticipated. With little time left before next year's national elections, there is not much more that can be done to continue the decentralization initiative under the current administration. Regardless of who leads the next administration, it is imperative that the work toward decentralization begun under President Duterte not only be continued, but expanded and accelerated.
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