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 Measuring performance: Local governments in Lanao del Sur are urged to spend more money on basic education and be transparent about it. KEITH BACONGCO/AKP Images MARAWI CITY -- It is 7 a.m. and a dozen heavily armed members of the Philippine National Police (PNP) man a checkpoint that marks the boundary between Balindong and Ganassi municipalities.
“We are always on red alert here especially after the ambush and killing of a mayor,” says the young Maranao police officer assigned at the police headquarters in Langcap, Marawi. “We need to elect new leaders, we need to have change,” he adds.
Here in Ganassi, change appears badly needed.
Roads are worn down while health centers provide shelter to domestic animals. School buildings are mostly old except for a few new two-classroom types which have been built by international donor agencies.
Ganassi’s internal revenue allotment (IRA) for 2009 was pegged at PhP 50,158,451 (USD 1.16 million) - higher than most of Lanao del Sur’s 39 municipalities. Lumbaca-Unayan meantime received the smallest – just PhP 25,393,471 (USD 590,545).
Even so, while the local government of Ganassi provides basic services of sorts to the population of 19,000, the municipality has still to provide potable water on tap to all residents.
“Last year, our municipality was allocated PhP 20 million (USD 465,116) by former President Gloria Arroyo for the construction of a water system,” Nosrodin Saripoden says pointing to a site for the proposed project. “The construction has started and we still have to see if it will be completed,” says the 47-year old resident of Macabao, one of the 32 barangays in Ganassi.
Absence of performance monitoring systems
It was mid-day amid the glittering sun where 60 young pre-school children marched towards a simple stage of Sultan Aguam Central Elementary School to formally receive their certificates from an assistant division school superintendent of the Department of Education (DepEd) for completing the mandatory eight-week early childhood education (ECE).
Before proceeding to the stage, five-year old Ashema Abdulmalic asks her mother: “Inakulay, inu madakul a taw emanto?” (Mother, why are there so many people?”) Her mother replies: “Because today is a special day. Today is your graduation. ”
Clad in white and yellow togas, the children belong to the fifth batch of the ECE program implemented by local NGO Lyecap with funding support from a donor agency.
Abdulgaphor Panimbang, Lyecap executive director, laments the lack of support for the education sector in this town. “The mere fact that we had to accept 60 young learners over and above our capacity is proof of the seeming disregard for the education sector,” he told the Philippine Public Transparency Reporting Project.
“The local government unit should have invested more for basic education but it is cash-strapped and can barely sustain the salaries for ECE teachers,” Panimbang complains.
No data
Surprisingly, given the refocusing and strengthening of local government unit performance measurement attempts in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) where the poorest of the poor live, no formal accountability measures are in place. Last October, ARMM officials received Local Governance Performance Management System (LGPMS) training from the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG).
LGPMS is an on-line system set up by DILG to fast-track monitoring of the progress of LGUs to encourage transparency. It aims to provide transparency and accountability measures of LGUS vis-à-vis in achieving their targeted local development plans and fiscal management.
Yet a look into in to the LGPMS website shows no data from Lanao del Sur.
Dr. Nordina Sarip, assistant schools division superintendent of Lanao del Sur II-B in Ganassi says nevertheless, the municipality is observing transparent processes especially in the building of the two-classroom learning centers.
“It has been proven we can provide facilities for young learners without wastage caused by kickbacks and red tape in procurement,” says Sarip.
But for one Muslina Osop, a young pre-school teacher, more money should be spent on basic education.
“The literacy rate in our municipality is very low and our children barely finish their elementary education,” he said. “The ECE is special for our children here because they need not go far, their parents need not spend much, and the community need not worry much because slowly many of us are learning to read and write.”
Panimbang added that local government “still lacked support from government agencies to help it improve its fiscal management and economic performance.”
Investing in human resources cliché
Things are different though in Lumbatan, Lanao del Sur, a fifth class municipality nestled above the famous Lake Lanao.
Home to more than 18,000 people, this place speaks of contrasts: a modern two-storey building for high school students and the recently inaugurated learning center which provides free pre-school education for young learners and alternative learning procedures for parents and the rest of the community.
As in Ganassi, there are no paved roads leading to this interior municipality and one high school in Macadar that serves students coming from its 20 barangays: Yet the mayor here is bent on improving this sleepy town by pouring more budget in education.
"Inshallah, we can become a model where our children and adults, as well as parents, shall learn to read, to write, and look for income generating opportunities that shall become our basis for development,” Mayor Mamintal Razuman says.
Education, according to him, is his top priority.
“As mayor, I accept full responsibility in sustaining this initiative because I firmly believe that it is only through basic education that we can uplift the intellectual being of our children. We shall mutually manage these facilities together with DepEd and the local government officials and the community.”
Yet ironically, except for the new high school building and a learning center, there are no indication of infrastructure improvement in the school complex: Some 2,000 children share a common toilet. In 2009, Lumbatan received a total of PhP 40,141,478 (USD 933,522) for its IRA. Where this money went though remains a question since Lumbatan, like Ganassi and the rest of the Lanao del Sur municipalities have published no data on budget management, disbursement, procurement processes or performance indicators.
Under DepEd’s Allocation of School Infrastructure in 2009 which amounted to more than PhP 1 billion (USD 23 million), ARMM received its share of PhP 44,769,991 (USD 1 million) for the purchase of school chairs and tables. Of these, Lanao del Sur was allocated PhP 7,959,072 (USD 185,094) —more than enough to provide decent and comfortable learning facilities for students. Yet, only a handful of modern chairs were visible at the Macadar Central Elementary School.
Banking on access roads
Because of bad road conditions, the local government is also focusing on paving more and better interior roads – as shown by the presence of a 24-hour work team near the poblacion. The adjacent municipality is Lumbayanague whose young mayor, Jamal Asum, is an epitome of a new breed of politician in an areas which has long been known for its clan feuds or ridos.
Mayor Asum has only been five months in office and local residents say they have yet to see if the young mayor can deliver.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a teacher claimed that previous leaders did not live in the area but in Iligan City. “Our government has been run and managed by ‘messengers’ of our mayor who come here and then to visit and then report to them,” confided the teacher.
Going back to Marawi City from Lumbatan, Panimbang stressed the need for local government units to improve their performance. “We know that in Lanao del Sur, people are basically poor and have no access to government services, we are still hoping that our leaders will make good of their promises,” says Panimbang. Philippine Public Transparency Reporting Project
(The author is a freelance journalist covering under-reported areas in Mindanao.)
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What's wrong with these photos (apart from the blocked out bits)? 
