CHAPTER I

THE PROBLEM AND ITS SETTING

Introduction

The Philippine Government’s response to the challenges set forth by the

people’s clamor for integrity driven, responsible and good performance in

public service is through the institutionalization of the Seal of Good

Housekeeping which was later upgraded to the Seal of Good Local

Governance and was later modified on the year 2019 with

a polished and redefined criteria through the Department of Interior and Local

Government (DILG) Memorandum Circular No. 2019 - 44 which posed a new

set of evaluation for the Local Government Units (LGU) of the Country that will

instill a culture of performance among the LGUs which utilizes performance

information for interventions and actions (Sec. Año, E. 2019). The Municipality

of Malalag, a second class municipality within the province of Davao Del Sur

was not able to attain the Seal of Good Local Governance for the last five

years since the implementation of the program on the year 2014 according

the Department of Interior and Local Government’s Report while in contrary:

Digos City which was once a municipality of Davao Del Sur and was given the

“city” status on September 08, 2000, was able to attain two consecutive Seal

of Good Local Governance on the year 2018 and 2019 and this poses a

notion of inquiry whether the Municipality of Malalag is not performing well

and could not meet the expectations of an effective and efficient governance.

With the onset of competition at the local level, a local government unit

must devise a strategic plan to adapt to the changes that it experiences on a

quarterly basis (Rago, W. 2014) and the same goes for the management of

the Municipality of Malalag. For five years of assessment within ever

municipality present in the Region of Davao Del Sur, only four municipalities

were able to achieve the Seal of Good Local Governance. As the role of the

government changes together with the environment justified by innovation, the

conventional flow of management is at stake for innovative approaches that

should be made to combat the effects of the changing time and retrogressive

change (Farazamand, A. 2015).

There are 52 determiners under the seven criteria set by the Department

of Interior and Local Government, in which the City of Digos did not meet the

criteria of three determiners and four are reconsidered, thus out of the 52

determiners – Digos City passed on the other 45 and this is due to the

competency of the total quality management (TQM) that facilitates every

planning and implementation of every office (Aldiguer, J. 2020). Total quality

management is essential in every private or public organization (Deming, W.

2015) but it should not be based on profit or benefits alone, it should rather

surround itself on giving services that are on par with the standards set and

everyone under the TQM should have a single preoccupation of public service

in mind (Swiss, J. 2000). That is why the TQM of every LGU should be

pursuant to the set criteria of the Seal of Good Local Governance in order to

have organized phases in accordance of what is expected to be performed by

each office under every LGU (Sec. Año, E. 2019)

In the language of assessment and fair competition, it is ethical for a Local

Government Unit to share its successes and strategies to another LGU. There

are comparative studies that surround itself on public enterprise, marine

preservation, and urban planning here in the Region of Davao Del Sur, but

there is notably zero number of studies nor comparative studies when it

comes to attaining the Seal of Good Local Governance. The Municipality of

Malalag has a promising geographic location which could further expand its

horizon in different governmental agenda but it needs to have a strong basis

such as that of the Digos City Government’s TQM in order to fully realize its

potential as a municipality. The government employees should have a shared

goal to offer the best services to its constituents (Rago, W. 2014).

Statement of the Problem

           With the failure to attain the Seal of Good Local Governance by the

Municipality of Malalag and the successful attainment of the SGLG by Digos

City, the researchers would like to determine the following on the course of

this study:

1. How does the Government Officials of both LGUs perceive the Seal of

Good Local Governance?

2. What is/are the challenge/s and the factor/s constituting to it, which

is/are encountered by the Government Officials of the Municipality of

Malalag in attaining the SGLG?

3. What was/were the challenge/s met by the Government Officials of

Digos City in their process of attaining the SGLG?

4. What was/were the coping mechanism/s implemented by Government

Officials of Digos City in order to attain the SGLG?

5. What will be the possible actions of the Government Officials of the

Municipality of Malalag in order to attain its first SGLG?

Review of Related Literature

In the light of this study, the following variables are identified: Seal of

Good Local Governance or the indirect standard set by the Department of

Interior and Local Government for the operations within the LGUs

(Independent Variable), Total Quality Management of Digos City (Independent

Variable) and the Total Quality Management of the Municipality of Malalag

(Dependent Variable).

Seal of Good Local Governance (Standard of LGU operations)

Setting a standard for determining the quality of a government operation is

essential in order to assess whether it have yielded or it will yield good results

or if it will only fail in the long run, determining the quality of government

operation is a broad and exhausting work for there are a lot of factors to be

considered such as: public sector efficiency; public good provision; size of

government; and political freedom (La Porta et. al. 1999).

The Filipinos are aching for short or long term solutions that may

drastically improve the state of their well-being and the society that they are

currently living, in a national level – programs such as 4Ps, fishing and

farming incentives, etc. as well as the Seal of Good Local Governance are

placed into motion to inspire the people to thrive for what is best but in

response to other governmental issues specially in the grass roots a

reinvention in their public operation is a must in the basis of a standard set by

the national level such as the new set of All-in criteria that will push the LGUs

for greater innovation in the areas of: Financial Administration; Disaster

Preparedness; Social Protection; Peace and Order; Business Friendliness

and Competitiveness; Environmental Protection; and Tourism, Culture and

Arts (Sec. Año, E. 2019) but reinventing the operation of a government does

not mean it needs to change into a nature of federal nor unitary. But the

solutions could only be found from the state or in any local governments all

around the country. These LGUs that have won Exemplary State and Local

Awards must be used as an example to other struggling LGUs (Osborne, D.

2012).

Despite the ideal usage of successful LGU’s as an example of good

governance, there are circumstantial factors that are to be considered

whether a successful governmental operation is applicable in a local

government unit that has a failing governmental operation, that is why the

process of Sharing and Exchanging as well as Comparing and Contrasting a

successful and non-successful governmental operation is a healthy way to

exchange ideas from one local to another in order to assess whether a

successful governmental operation will be applicable to its recipient and if it

could be used as basis (Vishny, R. 1999). It has been proven that integrating

successful total quality management revolving on organizational commitment

and with the positive shared interests of the two parties exchanging and

comparing will give better results (Igel, B. 2006)

Total Quality Management as a Basis (Digos City)

The main philosophy of Total Quality Management (TQM) is

organizational survival. It is a holistic quality improvement approach for the

purpose of improving the performance in terms of quality and innovation

(Zehir, C. 2012). Although quality and innovation are two different concepts
they are mostly interlinked with each other, the quality of public service is

dependent on the innovative idea that is placed for a specific purpose (Flynn,

B. 1994) such as having a Local Government Unit tagline of Uswag Digos! ,

this innovative approach directly affects the morale of the government

employees and enhances their public service (quality) which would result to a

more likely satisfactory rating from the public and is on par with the nationally

accepted standards of public service – a chain reaction per se (Dervitsiotis, K.

2011).

Total quality management hovers on eight different generally accepted

dimensions in good governance: leadership management, factual approach to

decision making, process management, supplier management, continual

improvement, employee management, customer focus and system approach

to management (Ertosun, G. 2012) Leadership management refers to the

exertion of influence by a single individual within a group, may it be his

interest or the collective interest of the group, instructions or mandates, etc.

Factual approach to decision making is determined by providing factual data

that are updated and could not compromise the whole process of the decision

making, it is because – these factual data are being used as a bases to

formulate alternative or long lasting solutions. Process management and

leadership management may be in concept similar, but the leadership

management is located from the beginning up to the end (from start up to

result) while process management refers to the step by step actions taken by

the organization in order to achieve its goal. Supplier management refers to

the capability of the organization to influence its material suppliers for certain

organizational functions. Continual improvement is a crucial dimension of total

quality management for it will further enhance the capability of the TQM to be

applied in all other areas of governance and not only in a single planning and

implementation. Employee management refers to the evaluation of the

employee’s performance, it is important for an organization to assess its

employees’ effectiveness on the time of duty, whether he/she is doing her job

in a satisfactory remark. Employee management may also refer to the

distribution of available manpower to any agency or offices under the local

government unit. Customer approach or how the offices cater the people is

also a crucial part of TQM because it is still part of the management process,

a positive customer approach will yield a positive comment and it will be the

contrary if the customer approach is poor or unsatisfactory.

Adapting other Total Quality Management frameworks that are not molded

within a particular governmental organization or department is still acceptable

as long as both parties are in mutual understanding (McAndrew, E. 2005) -

such as the usage of the Government of Cuba’s Healthcare System as a

reference or basis of the 2016 – 2022 Healthcare improvements of the

Philippine’s Department of Health or such as the adaptation of the Students

Rights and Welfare Make-up of the Federation of Students Organizations of

General Santos City’s from the Cagayan De Oro’s Federation of Sangguniang

Kabataan on the year 2017. These are all TQM adaptations by a certain

organization from another organization.

Unsatisfactory Total Quality Management (Municipality of Malalag)

Efforts to promote “good governance” must be broader than anti-

corruption and economic campaigns. Governments may be honest but are

inefficient because no one has the passion or drive to work productively

(Ackerman, S. 2005). It is of the sole purpose of quality improvement that the

Seal of Good Local Governance is implemented and it is expected that the

Local Government Units will follow suit by creating a total quality management

that is satisfactory and will meet the criteria for the award.

           There are four propositions that must be considered in order to

improve an unsatisfactory TQM: The first proposition that a government

should have is to create connections with its people – especially the ordinary

people that perceive the government as distant, unaccountable and corrupt

because they are not included in any public discourses (Gaventa, J. 2002). It

has been long thought by the people that are and below the poverty line that

they are just political pawns in order to sway the opinion of the general public.

The second proposition must be rebuilding relationships between citizens and

their local governments mean working both sides of the equation - that is,

going beyond ‘civil society’ or ‘state-based’ approaches, to focus on their

intersection, through new forms of participation, responsiveness, and

accountability (Wright, F. 2001). Innovative ideas will prove its effectiveness

on this proposition when the people rationally demand a change within the

system of governance it is of the primary duty of the government to assess

whether such demand is practicable or not. The third proposition is to call for

new forms of engagement between citizens and the state which involves a re-

thinking about the ways in which citizens’ voices are represented in the

political process, and a re-conceptualization of the meanings of participation

and citizenship in relation to local governance (Goetz, J. 2002). The people

within the locality must be consulted during open sessions or forums to better
understand their stand and to know whether they could provide further input

on the local government’s input or policies. The fourth proposition is

identifying the enabling conditions for the better known ‘successful’

experiments in participatory governance. Effective intervention strategies in

most cases must begin with how to create the pre-requisite conditions

necessary for participatory governance to succeed (Hellers, S. 2001). This

poses the importance of a basis that has already been tested and proven

such as the TQM of Digos City. 

           With the predetermined studies stated, it is circumstantially possible

that if this study will be a success, then the total quality management of Digos

City will be adapted by the Municipality of Malalag and will be enhanced

further to fit in its pre-operational procedures following the generally accepted

dimensions of good governance and the propositions to enhance an

unsatisfactory TQM. 

Theoretical Framework

The researchers sought to determine a tentative guess as to why the

Municipality of Malalag was not able to attain the Seal of Good Local

Governance for the past five years. Following the Theory of Analysis

Paralysis, it could be possible that the Municipality of Malalag is over

consumed by the challenges that they had encountered and is possibly

formulating alternative solutions for it, but due to the influx of challenges and

the predominant organizational operations that is still being practiced, the

government’s operation is ended up with a vast array of vague and indefinite

solutions which led to paralysis thus constituting to its failure to attain the Seal
of Good Local Governance for the last five years and despite the want to

attain the Seal of Good Local Governance. The Municipality has still not yet

able to formulate coping mechanisms to cope up with the challenges met. 

           While on the other hand, following the Theory of Problem Solving

focusing mainly on brainstorming, divide and conquer technique, root-cause

analysis, and means-end analysis - the Local Government Unit of Digos City

was able to attain the Seal of Good Local Governance for two consecutive

years. Following the techniques under the Problem Solving Theory: the ability

to perceive the problem, the perceptibility of the problem, the willingness to

solve the problem, the awareness of existence of the problem and the

formulation of strategies for problem-solving (Dostal, J. 2014), the LGU of

Digos were able to formulate coping mechanisms that enabled them to attain

the Seal of Good Local Governance. 

           As for the nature of this study, a qualitative-comparative study. It is

crucial for the Municipality of Malalag to maximize the comparative description

of its TQM to the TQM of the LGU of Digos and it should undertake the

Upward Comparison Theory and Mirror Theory. These two theories are

somewhat similar in nature but different in execution, the upward comparison

theory and its underlying strategies will help the municipality in determining its

strengths and weaknesses by making the LGU of Digos as its model for

comparison. Looking up to someone who is better and trying to determine

what you are lacking will let you focus on those lacking points (Cherry, K.

2019) and by mirror theory, the Municipality of Malalag can imitate the

strategies made by the LGU of Digos. This will also further strengthen the

groundwork of the imitator when it comes to the formulation of future solutions

for the imitator had already realized and has the basic grasp of what solution

to formulate (Steenbarger, B. 2015)

Significance of the Study

This research paper shows significance towards the Local Government

Unit of the Municipality of Malalag, Local Government Unit of Digos City,

Other Municipalities within Region XI with similar cases, The University of

Mindanao – Digos College and to the Students.

Local Government Unit of the Municipality of Malalag. This study will

provide the groundwork for the attainment of the Seal of Local Governance of

the Municipality.

Local Government Unit of Digos City. This study shows significance to

the showcase of the City’s interests in an efficient, effective and integrity-

driven service.

Other Municipalities within Region XI. This study could be used as a

basis for possible researches in the future or in planning and total quality

management enhancement of their respective municipalities.

The University of Mindanao – Digos College. This esteemed

educational institution will house the first comparative study between the LGU

of Digos City and LGU of the Municipality of Malalag pertaining to attaining

the Seal of Good Local Governance.

 The Students. This study will instill to the students – as future leaders of

this country – that mediocrity in government service deprives the people with

its right to an efficient and effective public service.

Definition of Terms

Seal of Good Local Governance

- Is the program set by the Department of Interior and Local Government

and carries the criteria to determine that a local government unit is efficient

and effective with its public service.

Total Quality Management

- Refers to the holistic quality improvement approach for the purpose of

improving the performance in terms of quality and innovation.