FROM their perches of utmost detachment, multilateral institutions such as the World Bank often offer unsolicited advice in the name of good and efficient governance. From a purely theoretical standpoint, the advice makes sense. The latest piece of advice on governance from the World Bank, that polity should work harder to strengthen the local government units (LGUs) and the decision-making powers of LGU leaders, is definitely sound advice in a country with a 100 percent commitment to the norms of liberal democracy. And where there is also 100 percent adherence to the normative practices of good governance.

Definitely not in the Philippine setting where LGU power is so overwhelming — and prone to abuse — that decision-making by the leaders usually breaches the boundaries of good governance and basic political propriety. (Politeness pushed me not to write ' decision-making influenced by unbridled corruption.') Take the case of the proliferation of the POGOs before the total ban ordered by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. And the first question related to the proliferation of POGOs, both legal and illegal, is this: What environment allowed the POGOs to proliferate in many nooks and corners of the country?