Local government in the Philippines

In the Philippines, local government is divided into three levels: provinces and independent cities, component cities and municipalities, and barangays, all of which are collectively known as local government units (LGUs). In some areas, above provinces and independent chartered cities are autonomous regions, such as the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. Some towns and cities remit their revenue to national government and is returned through the national government through a process called internal revenue allotment. Below barangays in some cities and municipalities are sitios and puroks. All of these, with the exception of sitios and puroks, elect their own executives and legislatures. Sitios and puroks are often but not necessarily led by an elected barangay councilor.

Provinces and independent cities are organized into national government regions but those are administrative regions and not separately governed areas with their own elected governments.

According to the Constitution of the Philippines, the local governments "shall enjoy local autonomy", and in which the Philippine president exercises "general supervision". Congress enacted the Local Government Code of the Philippines in 1991 to "provide for a more responsive and accountable local government structure instituted through a system of decentralization with effective mechanisms of recall, initiative, and referendum, allocate among the different local government units their powers, responsibilities, and resources, and provide for the qualifications, election, appointment and removal, term, salaries, powers and functions and duties of local officials, and all other matters relating to the organization and operation of local units."[1][2] Local government units are under the oversight of the Department of the Interior and Local Government, which is an executive department tasked with assisting the president in exercising the power of general supervision.

  1. ^ Republic Act No. 7160 (October 10, 1991), Local Government Code of 1991, The Official Gazette, retrieved December 18, 2023
  2. ^ "The Constitution of the Republic of the Philippines". www.gov.ph. Retrieved November 12, 2015.

Developed by StudentB