Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Benjamin ‘Benhur’ Abalos Jr. reminded the department’s field and regional offices to assist the local government units (LGUs) in formulating their Executive-Legislative Agenda (ELA).

Abalos said the submission of the status reports of its formulation is on Oct. 31.

The ELA is a term-based document that is developed and mutually agreed upon by the executive and legislative departments of an LGU in consultation with various stakeholders. It contains the LGU’s vision, goals, objectives, strategies, a platform of governance/priority thrusts of the incumbent, and the priority legislative agenda of the Sanggunian (local council).

The LGUs have until Oct. 11 to submit the copies of their approved ELA to the concerned DILG Provincial Offices.

Abalos said that the LGUs must prioritize their Devolution Transition Plans (DTPs) in the formulation of their three-year ELA in light of the full devolution effort mandated by the Supreme Court Ruling on the Mandanas-Garcia petitions.

“As the newly-elected officials are now in the process of defining their priority thrusts and legislative agenda, we urge them to commit to operationalize their DTPs through their ELA to realize the intents and objectives of full devolution,” Abalos said.

The Mandanas-Garcia ruling provides the LGUs a just share of all national taxes collected and not only from the Bureau of Internal Revenue and fully transfers or devolves the delivery of basic services to LGUs.

In an advisory, Abalos said provincial governors and city/municipal mayors should consider and prioritize the following DTP components as they craft their ELA: state and phasing of devolved functions, services, and facilities; capacity development requirements; changes in organizational structure and staffing pattern and manpower complement; and local resource mobilization program.

“To ensure that priority thrusts and strategies included in the ELA are considered in the 2023 budget, the ELAs are expected to be submitted within the first 100 days upon the assumption of the new set of officials,” he added.

In formulating the ELA, the LGUs may follow a seven-step process, namely: Presentation of the Vision, Vision-Reality Gaps, Goals, Objectives, and Strategies in plenary; Presentation of the LGU DTP; Presentation in plenary of the priority thrusts/platform of governance of the incumbent; Presentation in plenary the priority legislative agenda of the Sanggunian; Presentation of the synthesis of the executive and legislative priorities vis-à-vis the goals, objective and strategies; Agreement and finalization of the ELA; and Preparation and approval of the Resolution adopting the ELA. (Chito A. Chavez)