Local Legislators' Toolkit - The Sangguniang Panlalawigan ng ...

<strong>The</strong> tools in this kit were developed from the collective experience and innovations ofselected legislative bodies in Western Visayas involved in legislative capability buildingprograms of the Philippines-Canada <strong>Local</strong> Government Support Program (LGSP). <strong>The</strong>y arealso products of the LGUs’ exposure to exemplary legislative practices of selected localgovernments recognized for their excellence in local governance innovation. 1<strong>The</strong> toolkit is organized into five major parts. Part One “Understanding <strong>Local</strong> Legislation”revisits the meaning of local legislation as the process and the product of a systemconsisting of structures, cycles, processes, procedures and people. It also provides a guideor framework to understand the elements of effective local legislation -- an efficientinstitution or organization, a participatory local legislation process, and a developmentperspective. In short, effective local legislation is essentially about addressing thedevelopment objectives of a local government unit – poverty reduction, environmentalprotection, gender equality, peace and unity, accountability and transparency, and citizenparticipation.Part Two “Getting the Sanggunian Ready to Work” deals with the importance of settingup an efficient institution as a basic requirement of effective local legislation. It offers toolsfor getting individual legislators together to act as one collegial body agreeing on roles andwork norms, and for setting up appropriate organizational structures, committees, internalrules of procedures, systems and mechanisms for supporting its work and relations with theexecutive branch, e.g. <strong>Local</strong> Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council.Part Three “<strong>The</strong> Sanggunian at Work” focuses on understanding the local legislation cycleand shares tools that sanggunian members need to perform the following critical tasks:1. formulating and managing the legislative agenda2. crafting ordinances and resolutions3. enacting ordinances and codes of ordinances4. evaluating the implementation of ordinances1 LGSP partner LGUs were able to visit and interact with elected officials from the Province ofBulacan, Marikina City and the Municipality of Sta. Maria, Bulacan.2