Seven Habits Application for Managers (Dec. 2009)

(Echos lamang po eto.. lol.. napilitan lang po akong isulat eto noon kasi hinihingi ng training management sa mga nominees para sa Seven Habits Application for Managers. Mangyaring huwag pong seryosohin.:D)

Name of Nominee: JOY FRANCES M. MONSANTO (DILG-Samar)

1. How do you see yourself in the next 10 years?

For seventeen (17) years of being in the Department, first, as an LGOO directly involved in the implementation of major programs at the Municipal Level, then, as an OIC-Assistant Provincial Director involved in the administrative and management operations at the Provincial Level, I could say that I have gained the knowledge and skills required to effectively promote and put into concrete action the Department’s mission and vision. Nevertheless, I know that I should not rest on these accomplishments. Instead, I should nurture everything that I have learned and turn it into something more valuable and contributory to the betterment of the Department’s Provincial Office’s operation. In order for me to do so, I should seek greater and better training in this area.

Our generation of Local Government Operations Officers came at a time when the Department was undergoing change from its previous regulatory and supervisory function to that of coordinative and facilitative.We were lucky enough not to have experienced the different transition dilemma brought about by the sudden shift, but were inauspicious to be in the frontline trying to content ourselves with what was left for us to do after decentralization and local autonomy. This had just been part of a dim past. DILG withstood its trying times; and today, it remains as an agency that continues to develop programs and strategies which brings and spells, relevance to local governance and development. Now considered as a knowledge-centric organization, there is a need for its people, specifically the LGOOs, to be equipped with enough familiarity and understanding of its major programs, share it with the clientele, and ensure that it is utilized to produce the expected results.

Banking on all these, I could very well see what I would become ten years from now. In a broader perspective, I could see myself still in the government service and proud to be part of a Department that has always required quality performance from its human resources. To further narrow down my option based on a self-imposed long term goal, I would probably be one of the DILG regional leaders with excellent capacity in converging development partners towards local development. Just like any other LGOO, I can see myself as a catalyst in its truest sense, a complete resource person with a key role in promoting a culture of learning for excellence in local governance through linkages and networking strategies, facilitating knowledge sharing and utilization processes, and brokering strategic knowledge to transform and apply data information for effective and responsive action.


2. With broader and deeper local autonomy, what strategic role should DILG play?

In a decentralized government like ours, there needs to be a convergence of stakeholders (i.e. the national government, the LGUs, business sectors and civil society, etc.), in administrative, political and environmental governance, that shall focus its concerted efforts on the main issues to be resolved. In the present set up, the national government, especially the DILG shall provide policy directions so that local governments shall be able to effectively and efficiently perform service delivery aimed towards the attainment of self-reliant and autonomous local authorities and active partners for national development.

The role that our Department plays in local governance has changed considerably from that of regulation and supervision during the pre-local autonomy days, to coordination and facilitation after the implementation of the Local Government Code of 1991. Capacity development for local governments has been a major concern since then, and being a proactive organization, DILG has introduced numerous initiatives through its different programs, projects and activities that would address related issues and help capacitate LGUs. Over the last few years, it has exerted effort to keep its new mandate as catalyst for excellence in local governance while trying to strengthen local autonomy in its real sense by practicing knowledge management through the use of performance data, identification, documentation and replication of exemplary practices, establishment of Local Government Resource Centers, and the convergence and synergy of local governance initiatives within the Department and with other national government agencies.

With this positive development in terms of building a culture of learning and knowledge sharing in the local governance sector, while at the same time maintaining the principles of local autonomy, DILG, then, shall be the capacity development enabler, specifically directing and steering the capacity building efforts of local government units and providing support both to the service providers and beneficiaries to ensure that these are sustained and utilized. In so doing it shall work hand in hand with the various leagues and the different level LGUs as direct partners; the academic institutions, local resources institutions, NGOs and Research Institutes as capacity development providers; and the civil society, people’s organizations, non-government organizations and the rest of the citizenry as indirect partners.