Metropolitan Arrangements - Philippine Institute for Development ...

Metropolitan Arrangements in the Philippines 57
City consulted the province regarding the formation of the council
and sought its support and cooperation.
The existence of a municipal identity and loyalty despite its
metropolitan arrangement in the traditional local government system
may, thus, depend on the political dynamics in the regional area. Such
dynamics will determine the destiny of subprovincial units involved
in the arrangements.
Resolution of conflicts: compromise and sacrifice
Taking heed of tradeoffs between metropolitan and local
concerns is one of the more difficult issues in metropolitan
governance. The basic problem arises when local executives give
priority to the interest of their respective constituents over that of
the whole metropolis. The problem of solid waste management best
illustrates this dilemma.
Many LGUs have improved garbage collection system by
adopting more systematic methods and have successfully rallied the
cooperation of their constituencies in promoting a clean environment.
However, the reality remains that the final disposal of collected
garbage has not reached a level of modernity and strict environmental
acceptability. Open dumping is still the standard practice. The two
major technologies available in this regard are incineration and the
establishment of a sanitary landfill. The former is regarded by the
Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) as an
expensive option considering the quality of waste generated, which
is largely putrescible materials. The use of landfills is what the agency
is encouraging local governments to adopt instead (Ganapin 1997).
There are two big constraints to the establishment of sanitary
landfills, which is why these cannot gain much support from local
governments. First and foremost is the huge cost of developing the
facility and the similarly expensive maintenance requirement. This
problem could be mitigated through inter-LGU cooperation as
economies of scale are achieved. Metropolitan arrangements show a
lot of promise in this regard. In case financing can be handled jointly
by the LGUs concerned, a second hindrance comes to the fore--the
NIMB (short for Not In My Backyard) attitude. The problem of site
identification is such a perplexing issue and no amount of technical
exegesis can convince a local government of the economic, geological
and environmental feasibility of an area under its jurisdiction as the
best place to build the sanitary landfill.