Inter-Local Collaboration

Abstract

Today, Batangas is one of the only provinces in the Philippines, who have implemented the Integrated Coastal Management (ICM) program successfully alongside with Bataan and Guimaras. It is a mechanism to increase the efficiency of coastal governance in terms of its ability to achieve sustainable use of coastal resources. The Local Government Code of the Philippines encourages cooperative mechanisms and partnerships among stakeholders at the local level. Furthermore, different sectors and stakeholders, from international, national, and local levels, have contributed to the implementation of the program. The Local Government Units (LGUs) of Batangas are among the key actors in the implementation of the program. Using the Model of Collaborative Governance (Ansell & Gash, 2007), and Common Pool Resource Theory (Ostrom, 1990), this paper reveals that the inter-local collaboration of Batangas City and 14 coastal municipalities of Batangas province as regards the successful implementation of the ICM program in their province is effective based on the Critical Ingredients for Effective Inter-Local Government Unit (LGU) Cooperation, which was formulated by the Philippine Development Forum Working Group on Decentralization and Local Government's Sub-Working Group on Inter-Local Cooperation. A qualitative approach was used in this research, through the descriptive method following an evaluative design. As such, this research caters contributions to the field of political science, both theoretically and practically by applying the aforementioned theories, and by exemplifying the interactions of the LGUs of Batangas in fulfilling the goals of the ICM program as a successful model which could be adopted by other LGUs in the country.