ABSTRACT
Development planning, generation of revenues and land use controls have been among the powers devolved to local officials by the 1991 Local Government Code (LGC) of the Philippines, which many local government units have learned to use for the benefit of their constituents, despite lingering habits of relying on the central government. This study seeks first to describe the physical and institutional manifestations of decentralisation in Tarlac, the province from which the new President Benigno Aquino III hails, and which is some 100 km north of the capital, Metropolitan Manila. It then presents a qualitative analysis of characteristic aspects of governance that have enabled and impeded the implementation of decentralisation in Tarlac province. The historical recipient of infrastructure and investment that have driven urbanisation, Tarlac is currently poised to gain more, as decentralisation, in the hands of its imaginative young leaders who have dared to experiment, often successfully, has transformed towns into hubs of activity. Among the manifestations are jointly planned highways and telecommunications, magnets of commerce, and the ordinances that enable investors to do business efficiently. Moreover, decentralisation has brought about a paradigm shift that encourages co-operation of non-state actors who wish to influence innovative development.
