To create a cadre of coaches that will assist local government units (LGUs) in Central Visayas in their formulation of Devolution Transition Plans (DTPs), the Department of the Interior Local Government (DILG)-7, through the leadership of Dir. Leocadio Trovela, spearheaded the Regional Orientation on the Preparation of LGU DTPs on August 18-19, 2021 via WebEx.
The virtual activity aims to lay down plans for the conduct of roll-out orientations and face-to-face workshops at the provincial level down to the barangays, and further strengthen coordination between national government agencies (NGAs) and LGUs.
Participants were city, municipal, and provincial directors and officers of field and sub-regional offices of DILG-7, other national government agencies, and barangay devolution transition committees, which are composed of a local chief executive, local administrator, Sangguniang Barangay, Liga ng Mga Barangay president, local finance committee and civil society organizations.
Resource speakers were regional and provincial directors and representatives of the DILG-7, Department of Budget and Management-7, National Economic and Development Authority-7, Department of Finance – Bureau of Local Government Finance-7, Civil Service Commission-7, Department of Agriculture-7, Department of Social Welfare and Development-7, and Department of Environment and Natural Resources-7, and representatives of DILG devolution core teams.
They provided technical assistance and discussed the salient provisions of the DBM-DILG Joint Memorandum Circular No. 2021-1, which provides the instruments, processes, and mechanisms that will facilitate LGUs in their DTP formulation for a smooth transition towards LGUs’ full assumption of devolved functions and services. The resource persons also cascaded their respective NGAs’ DTPs to LGUs.
Trovela, for his part, stressed the importance of the activity in the attainment of the full devolution to LGUs and thanked the participants for their support to the LGUs.
“This task will not be easy for us to do. This is a massive undertaking. We are talking about the vital resource mobilization that will happen in our LGUs and your participation here goes to show that we are reminded of our official mandate, which is to provide the needed capacity development for our LGUs,” Trovela said.
“I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to everyone especially to our LGU participants and regional line agencies for showing your support to our LGUs,” he added.
The regional orientation was initiated pursuant to the efficient implementation of the Mandanas and Garcia ruling and Executive Order No. 138, s. 2021, which devolved certain functions of the executive branch to the LGUs consistent with the relevant provisions under the Local Government Code and other laws on devolution.