地球環境研究，Vol.20（2018）The regional disparity caused by decentralization policy indeveloping countries―A case study of road management systems under the
implementation of the local government code 1991 in the Philippines―
KAINUMA Emi＊
Key words：Decentralization, Local governance, Road management, Infrastructure, the Philippines

1．Introduction

the Marcos administration, she promoted transfer ofauthority over the infrastructure from national to local

Decentralization is characterized as one of thegovernment responsibility which directly associates

world wide political trends in the late 1980s and 1990s

with people’s life. The code’s most important featurethat is believed to have promoted democratization.

is the decentralization of five basic service, namely

Opening up of the market and loosening of the formal

health, agriculture, social welfare, public works andprocedures lead by centralized political system

environment as well as natural resources（Tapales,

were expected to be one of the effective methods to1998）. This code became even more significant if

accelerate the local development. The Philippines,

appreciated within the context of the country’s highlywhich will be the focus of this study, adopted thecentralized politico-administrative history, a tradition

drastic policies during those times. The new local

inherited from the period when the country was

government code, namely the Local Government Codecolonized and ruled by so-called“Imperial Manila”

1991 or Republic Act No.7160, was established in 1991

（Brillantes Jr., 1999）.

and implemented in 1992.

Under the code, responsibilities to construct

The purpose of enactment of the code wasand maintain provincial, city, municipal andto assist the self-dependency as well as to acceleratebarangay １）roads are ordained to respective sections

the economic activities of local areas. The local politics

of local government units. The establishment of thein the Philippines have been considered to be active

administrative system which is improved by thealthough the state has largely failed to promote

prompt reaction on resident’s needs and request may

economic development unlikely to other neighborhave been responsible for bringing the improvement

countries and has perceived as weak, at least in termsof resident’s conveniences and income increase. Afterof implementing developing policies.（Kawanaka,

the implementation of the code, economic difference on2002）. Under the Marcos administration, resources

the family income between the metropolitan area andwere accumulated in Metro Manila, which created athe outside area became smaller, however, the larger

large economical gap between the metropolitan area

economic differential among the outside metropolitan

and the its outside area. Due to these situations, thehas emerged（Kainuma, 2005）.

Aquino regime had to pursue the equivalency policy

In this paper, author attempted to clarify

in order to show to the Filipino voters and investing

how the policy devolution functioned on the roadforeign countries this obvious different approach from

infrastructure management and how it influenced

the former administration. In one scheme to rectify

to the resident’s economic activity in the rural

the regional differential which became larger duringmountainous area. Based on the results of the analysis,＊

Faculty of Geo-environmental Science, Rissho University
163

The regional disparity caused by decentralization policy in developing countries（Kainuma）

discussion will be made pertaining to the causes ofto the respective local government unit and residents

the regional differentials that are created by the newat the respective municipalities in September andsystem.

October 2005, with the kindest assistance of Philippine
Rice Research Institute and Benguet State University.

2．Methods and study area

80 households responded the interview survey

There is a significant relationship between

which was in the questionnaire form. The number

the economic level and the distance from Metro Manilaof respondents in respective municipalities are as

as author has already clarified in the previous study

follows; 11 in Bakun, 11 in Kapangan and 18 in La（Kainuma, 2003）. Based on this concept, two provinces

Trinidad in Benguet Province and 15 in Alfonso Lista,

were selected as study areas. From results of analyses

13 in Hingyon and 12 in Hungduan in Ifugao Province.

on topography, land use, road network, population

The main contents of the questionnaire were basic

census and socio-economic data, Benguet Province

information on their family composition, migration

and Ifugao Province were chosen for this study. Bothhistory, working place, domestic finance, farmland area

provinces are located in the Cordillera Administrativeand its water resource, production crops and its yield,

Region in the Cordillera mountainous area where

destination of distribution and its transport methods,

agriculture is the dominant industry. Further, based on

and their concern toward the cooperative activity.

the data obtained from the provincial governments, six
municipalities were chosen to conduct the fieldwork,
namely, Bakun, Kapangan and La Trinidad in Benguet
Province while Alfonso Lista, Hingyon and Hungduan
in Ifugao Province. An interview survey was conductedIfugaoProvince
010km
HungduanAlfonso Lista

HingyonBakun
LagaweKapangan

Benguet
Province

La Trinidad

0Administrative
boundary
Primary road

Baguio City

River
Lake
Mine
Figure 1. Study Area（2005）
Figure1. Study Area (2005)
164

200km

地球環境研究，Vol.20（2018）

Philippines, namely concrete, asphalt, gravel and earth.

3．Results

In this analysis, concreted and asphalted roads are

3-1．Comparison of conditions of national roaddefined as“paved road”.

Conditions of roads are considered to reflect

In 1985, both provinces of Benguet and Ifugao

the situation as well as financial status of area.

showed lower performance of paved ratio compareComparison of sufficiency of social overhead capital will

to national average, however the standard of Ifugao

be made to understand the situation of study areas.

was as low as half percent that of national. The ratio

Data specially offered by Department of Public Works

continued to be lower in both provinces than theand Highways（DPWH）were used for the analysis ofnational in 1997. Finally in 2013, the ratio in Benguet

1985 and 1997 while data of 2013 were obtained fromwent beyond the national average while Ifugao

Philippine Statistics Authority（PSA）. Four types

remained to be low.

of surface type were used to classify the road in the

Although national road is constructed andmaintained under DPWH, it can be an index topresume the condition of local roads ２）. This analysis

Ifugao Province

will help to understand the road condition and its
status in the country.
3-2．Viewpoint of local government units toward
devolution of road management

Benguet Province

Most of the local government units highly
evaluated the authority devolution to execute theMetro Manila

local road construction and maintenance. Before thedevolution, road management was handled by DPWHof National Government with their own criteria whichwere not always applicable to the real local needs
and situation. Moreover, the process of the projectapproval was time consuming.

For the first step,

the local government presented project proposals
that are made based on their implementing priority
order to DPWH.

The approval by DPWH took along time, sometimes it lasted several years. Afterbeing approved by DPWH, deliberation of contents
and budget of the project was further carried out
by Department of Budget and Management（DBM）
Figure2.network
Road networkinin thePhilippines(2017)
Figure2. Road
thePhilippines（2017）
Source: OpenStreetMap and Humanitarian Data Exchange
Source: OpenStreetMap and Humanitarian Data Exchange

before the final approval. In addition to this time
consuming deliberation procedure, more time wasTable 1．Inventory of National Road in the Philippines
Length（in kilometers）

Paved

Ratio（%）

1985

1997

2013

1985

1997

2013

25727.8

26720.2

33621.7

45.8

56.8

75.7

Benguet Province

472.5

464.2

554.0

45.5

48.6

80.0

Ifugao Province

253.6

253.9

301.0

22.4

30.0

54.5

Nationwide

Source: Calculated from the data of DPWH and PSA

165

The regional disparity caused by decentralization policy in developing countries（Kainuma）

required for the national budgeting to disburse

3-3．Devolution and its influence to resident’sthe allocated budget to DBM. After the authority

economic activity

devolution, the project was able to implement

The change of resident’s life influenced by

rapidly by their own prioritization as each project

devolution will be discussed in this chapter. First, thedid not need to be screened at the national level andoutline of each municipality will be described.

budgeting installment was made promptly to the local
government.

La Trinidad is the capital city of Benguet
Province where the central wholesale market of the

Not all aspects can be expected to win

northern Luzon, the trading post, is located. Baguio

a positive evaluation, however, negative opinions

City, the largest city in the northern Luzon, adjoins

dominated the fiscal aspect. The local government unit

La Trinidad. Highland vegetables, strawberries andnow has a responsibility to disburse the cost of roadflowers are the main products to characterize thismanagement projects after devolution although budget

area. Production of rice, root crops and beans are mainis insufficient to allocate. Each local government unit

agricultural activity in Kapangan，Bakun, which isis obliged to expense 20 percent of Internal Revenue

located at the northwest most of the province, is the

Allotment（IRA）as “20% Development Fund”,

town where rice, highland vegetables and beans arewhich is utilized for social, health, environment andmainly produced.

infrastructure development. According to the analysis

Alfonso Lista is located at the lowland, whichof the data which author obtained, a large part of theis the rare case in the Ifugao Province. Rice, corn, androad management project were conducted using thisbeans are the main products in the area. In Hingyon,fund. In other words, 42 percent of 20% Development

although they grow some vegetables, most of the land

Fund was allocated to infrastructure program andis allocated for rice cultivation. People who engage

among which 33 percent were assigned to the roadin agriculture are dominating in Hungduan in Ifugao

management at La Trinidad in 2004. Therefore, theProvince although there are a number of people whoroad management budget is largely influenced by

are involve in woodcarving as a sideline.

the amount of IRA. The transferred fiscal budget

After devolution, 90 percent of respondents

was insufficient to cover cost for necessary projects

appreciated the prompt reaction by the local

and responsibilities that were turned over bygovernment when they requested for road

implementation of Local Government Code 1991. For

improvement and maintenance（Table2）. And

this reason, most of the local governments could, atapproximately 70 percent of respondents valued

most, improve the surface of existing road, but not

the better maintenance of utilized roads by the

conduct new construction.

governments which resulted in the expansion ofmarket area. In Bakun for an example, before

Table 2．Number of respondents who have evaluated the change in the life
brought about within 15 years（1990-2005）
Numberof Total
Respondents

PromptReaction on
Petition

Cultivationof Beneficial
Products

IncomeIncrease

Bakun
BenguetKapangan
Province
La Trinidad

11

10

8

11

9

5

10

10

10

3

3

3

18

16

15

14

14

15

Alfonso Lista
IfugaoHingyon
Province
Hungduan

15

15

12

10

10

9

13

11

10

9

8

9

12

11

9

7

7

7

Improvement
Enlargedof the Road Market Area

Source: Interview Survey
166地球環境研究，Vol.20（2018）

devolution, all the respondents consumed theirfacilities such as greenhouse. Eventually many of themproducts on their own or, sold at the town market

became profitable flower producers of roses, florist’

within the municipality. However, due to the betterchrysanthemum, baby’s breath and so on. Although

maintenance of the road network after devolution,

the flower producing requires farmers a large cost not

the numbers of households who are distributing theonly during the initial stage, but also for the running

products to the trading post in La Trinidad havecost, although the size of the profit are large enough toincreased. 10 out of 11 households that we interviewed

cover those expenses. A country like the Philippines

in the survey are shipping their agricultural products,

where the climate is tropical, the regions for producing

such as pepper and cabbage, to the trading post androses are very limited, and this made the flowers asome are even shipping cleome, a flowering plant, tohighly value-added product.

Baguio City directly.

road network and its condition allowed the farmers to

The improvement of

As for Hungduan, its road network used

access to the larger market that enabled them to gain

to be easily collapsed due to the bad road condition

income. Moreover, most of them were able to ship theas well as the vulnerability against the sediment

flowers to the market in Baguio City and some havedisaster. Additionally, the equipment of access road toeven shifted to bring them directly to Dimasalang

national roads was not well maintained and the publicMarket in Metro Manila. Through the direct business

transportation system was not well developed, whichat the Dimasalang Market, which is the largest flower

made it quite difficult for farmers to distribute theirmarket in the Philippines both in its volume of trade

products outside of the municipality. Although there

and the highest price of the products, those farmers

is still unease during the raining season, 3 farmers

have accumulated further capital. In 2005, the farmers

started to bring their products even to Nueva Vizcaya

in La Trinidad were considered to be the richest

Province, the province next to Ifugao, during the dry

farmer in the country and remain to be same until

season after devolution.

today.

In Alfoso Lista, majority of farmers were said

On the other hand, there are areas liketo produce mainly rice for their home consumption,

Kapangan where the life of farmers have not changed

however, after the devolution the road conditions

much for last 15 years. According to the interview

have improved and majority of them have shifted tosurvey, the roads in their residential area made little

cultivate corn as they can access the bigger market

change even after the devolution.

in outside province where their products can be soldagricultural products largely stayed the same andwith higher profit. In order to increase their incomes,

remain primarily for home consumption. If they havethey have changed to produce profitable yellow cornsome surplus crops, they will sell them at the market

from white corn.

without distributing them beyond their barangay.

Types of theirAmong all the municipalities focused on in

Although the distance to trading post is far shorter

this study, La Trinidad has attained most drastic

than that in Bakun, almost no farmers have shippedchange thanks to the road network improvement.

their products there.

Access roads to connect the local settlements and themarketplace have improved since the middle of 1990s

4．Discussion

where many of the farmers have shifted to produce

Devolution and decentralization of political

further profitable crops. Concretely, those who have

responsibility enable prompt provision of basic services

engaged in rice or root crop cultivation and swinethat are in need for local residents. Since the local

husbandry have changed to produce cucumbers or

government units can now implement infrastructurebeans subjected to distribute them at the trading post.

programs with their own responsibility, improvement

The increased income through those profitable cropsof the service quality with higher efficiency is

was used to invest to construct expensive agricultural

expected. At the same time, however, it may result
167

The regional disparity caused by decentralization policy in developing countries（Kainuma）

in deprivation of the merit of scale or external benefitof satisfaction.

which would expand the regional differentials between

One of the reasons for causing these problems

the areas that can fully utilize the resources andis the existence of large differentials in the accumulated

those cannot. The points clarified in this paper are

technical knowledge and skills among local government

summarized as follows.

units that are indispensable to implement devolved
power and responsibilities. The Local Government

4-1．Devolution and regional development

Code 1991 was enacted in October 1991 and enforced

As seen in the results, devolution of

in January 1992. The power was devolved to local

administrative and fiscal power from the national

government units without having enough time toto local governments improved the efficiency on

acquire knowledge for the implementation.

implementing the road management projects. It also

manpower of the national government was supposed

enabled the defining of priorities, based on local actual

to be transferred to the local government based on theneeds, and the benefits were clearly distributed to

guide line of the code, however, most of the head ofresidents of each area. In regards to the influence on

local government units refused to sign the acceptancethe farmer’s life, the expansion of market availabilityof DPWH staffs in order to avoid local confusion or

was accompanied by improvement of accessrefused to be monitored by transfered staffs, therefore

environment, enabling farmers to distribute their

many of them were not transferred. The Department

products under more favorable conditions. This wouldof Interior and Local Government（DILG）was

lead to the increase of income and enable them toassigned to monitor the public works projects including

further invest in costly facilities that are indispensableroad management implemented in the local area,

to produce high value- added products. Then, these

although they also did not have enough knowledge andproducts would be dealt at the market of larger

experience in the field. For this reason, in order toscale consuming area with larger needs. And theseexchange the opinions and knowledge, as well as theirbusinesses would offer the farmers opportunities toefforts for capacity building including the development

attain the further income growth.

of human resources, enforcement of the linkage andNot all the areas have endowed the economic
development through the Local Government CodeThe

network among local government units are the key tolead this devolution in success.

1991, which resulted in dividing local areas into twopatterns. One is the area which economic activity

4-3．Problems of insufficient budget for the road

was accelerated through the development of roadmanagement project

management system and the other is the area in which

As a large part of the budget for roadeconomic conditions did not change much or became

management comes from the 20% Development

worse. Areas of the latter pattern have difficulties inFund which is a part of IRA, the allocation criteria

materializing the expansion of the potential market

of IRA among local government units establishes

which leads to little option for earning higher income

the mechanism to increase the gap among thesefrom their products.

governments. The formula to allocate IRA is 50% for
population index, 25% for land area index and 25% for

4-2．Problems pertaining to the difference ofequal share. This is to say, higher population withcapability among local government units

an economically developed area will be advantageous

Most of the local government units havein receiving IRA.

However, if the IRA system isappreciated the devolution of the power to handle

expected to function in the redistribution of public

the road infrastructure and expected to improvefinances and to rectify the regional gap, depopulated

the convenience of people’s life in the local areas.

or economically inactive degrees should be taken into

However, there are regional differentials in the degree

consideration when the allocation index is formulated.

168

地球環境研究，Vol.20（2018）

Indeed, the scale of the revenue and IRA

The results of this study indicates that theallocated to the local governments have increased

decentralization and devolution should be processedby the Local Government Code 1991. Yet, unless a

carefully or it may cause the confusion of local sites asregressive index to consider the financial capability

well as the creation of new disparity among local areasof each local government unit as well as the degree

depending on the capability to operate and enforceof stagnancy of the area is introduced, the gap among

new competence. Many of the developing countries had

local government’s performance will continue to be

to start their nation-building under centralized systems

enlarged.

after won the independency from suzerain due to

5．Concluding remarks

keep their power by accumulating to some certain
people, organization and place. In this context, most

The Local Government Code 1991 is aof the local areas were put behind in terms of priority

milestone to accelerate regional growth and localof the development that its quite difficult to expect

autonomy. In some sense, one can conclude that somethem to earn enough skills immediately to mange theirof the targets were accomplished as well as the mainplace by themselves. In order to materialize the local

purpose to alleviate the regional imbalance between

development through decentralization, proper support

Metro Manila and outside areas was attained.

of national government would be indispensable until

Devolution of the power to implement thethey can reach to the stage of stand alone.

road infrastructure functioned as a driving force toactivate regional economic activity, however, regional
differentials are now observed at its impact degree.

Acknowledgements

Due to the difference in the accumulated

I would like to thank the Provincial

knowledge to implement the devolved power among

governments of Benguet and Ifugao, Municipal

local government units, it is indispensable to transfer

governments of Bakun, Kapangan, La Trinidad,

administrative, technical and financial skills to the

Alfonso Lista, Hingyon and Hungduan for offering theirnecessary local government units in order to attain theinvaluable data to conduct this research. I am also

better performance of decentralization. Moreover, thegrateful to the residents of those municipalities who

support of the national government agency, especiallyhave shared the valuable information and opinion to us,

DPWH, would be crucial until local government units

at the sacrifice of their busy schedule for harvesting.

acquire enough techniques, skill and knowledge to
execute the infrastructure programs of building andThis research was partially funded by
Fukutake Science and Culture Foundation.

maintenance by themselves.
The influence of the decentralization anddevolution to the local areas was examined in thisReferences

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local governance in the Philippines.（In Casis, R.J.（ed.）,by the residents can improve people’s lives through theincrease of income that benefits from the expansion ofmarket area. However, if the fundamental goals of the

The local government code: an assessment. Quezon
City:University of the Philippines Law Center. p.3-16.）
・Humanitarian Data Exchange（2017）https://data.
humdata.org/

code, which are to promote the growth of the regional

・KAINUMA, E.（2003）Causes of regional income

economy and attain the local autonomy as well as todifferentials in the Philippines. Science Reports of theseek the balanced national economic growth throughInstitute of Geoscience, University of Tsukuba, Section A,

rectifying regional imbalance, are to be evaluated, the25:53-69.

system to execute road management projects should
be re-examined.

・KAINUMA, E.（2005）Change in poverty incidence in
the Philippines― A Comparative study of urban and

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rural areas ―.（In Murayama, Y. & Du, G.（eds）, Cities

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Padilla, P.L.（ed.）, Strengthening local government

College of Tourism, Rikkyo University with IGU Urban

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Footnotes

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・OpenStreetMap（2017）https://data.humdata.org/

１）Barangay is a small territorial and administrative

dataset/philippines-roads-0

district forming the most local level of government in the・Philippine Statistic Authority（2014）2012 Philippine

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Countryside in Figures.

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開発途上国における地方分権化政策により形成された地域格差―フィリピンにおける1991年地方政府法の施行による道路管理を事例として―
貝

沼

恵

美＊

立正大学地球環境科学部＊

Abstract:
本稿は、フィリピン共和国（以下フィリピン）で制定された1991年地方政府法の施行により形成された新たな地域
格差を道路管理を通じて検討し、開発途上国において地方分権化政策を導入するうえでの課題を考察するものである。
フィリピンでは1960年代半ばから20年以上にわたり、マルコス政権下において開発独裁体制が採られていた。しかし、その後の政権を担ったアキノ大統領は民衆の強い要望もあり、民主化の促進および地域格差是正の一環としての地方分権化政策を推進し、地方道の整備は、それぞれの管轄行政体に任されることとなった。そこでルソン島北部に位置するベンゲット州とイフガオ州の地方自治体や住民に対するアンケートおよび聞き取り調査を通じて、道路管理の分権化による評価可能な点と課題を整理した。
その結果、それ以前と異なり地域の要望に対する対応が早くなったことが評価された反面、自治体レベルにおける道路整備の知識や理解度、財政の管理能力の差異に基づく新たな地域格差が創出されたことが明らかになった。このことはナショナルミニマムが満たされていない国における地域開発の在り方と課題を示唆するものと考えられる。
キーワード： 地方分権化、地方自治、道路管理、社会資本、フィリピン共和国

170