More than 1,470 of the 1,715 local government units in the country have performed well in securing peace and order at the local level.
In its 2021 Peace and Order Council (POC) performance audit report, the Department of Interior and Local Government stated that 88.24 percent or a total of 1,477 LGUs nationwide have functional provincial, city, and municipal councils, doing their share in securing public safety.
“Peace and order remain to be critical contributors to a progressive economy. We recognize the efforts of these 1,477 LGUs to continuously deliver good performance in promoting programs and policies aimed at intensifying peace and order in their respective jurisdictions and protecting citizens from the bad elements of our society,” DILG Secretary Benjamin Abalos, Jr., said.
“The Marcos administration is relentless in its pursuit of reducing criminality and sustaining peaceful, orderly, and safe communities. One way to help reach this vision is to ensure that POCs at the local level are operating and functioning efficiently,” he added.
Abalos said the positive result is a clear manifestation of the LGUs’ adherence to peace and order-related laws.
Among the regional POCs that performed well last year were the National Capital Region, Ilocos, Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon, Southern Tagalog, Mimaropa, Bicol, Western Visayas, Central Visayas, Zamboanga, Northern Mindanao, Davao, Soccsksargen, Caraga, Cordillera, and the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
“POCs have played an integral role in the government’s campaign to go grassroots in fighting criminality, illegal drugs, insurgency and violent extremism. It becomes an instrument for stronger collaboration between the administration and the LGUs in carrying out projects related to peace and order,” Abalos said.
Under DILG Memorandum Circular 2019–143, Series of 2019, POCs in the regional, provincial, city, and municipal levels are also mandated to ensure the effective and efficient implementation of programs, projects, and activities aimed to curb anti-criminality, anti-insurgency, and anti-illegal drugs to ensure peace and order, and public safety.
The performance audit aims to evaluate the functionality of regional, provincial, city and municipal POCs, acknowledge the innovations done by the POCs and their Secretariats, enhance POC strategies and interventions, and build an avenue to showcase the best practices.
In the recent audit, Abalos said LGUs were evaluated based on their compliance to the prescribed membership composition in Executive Order No. 773, the number of meetings conducted; three-year term-based plan and budget allocation; submitted accomplishment reports through the Peace and Order and Public Safety Plan Policy Compliance Monitoring
System; initiated innovative programs on peace and order and public safety; and higher POCs’ general supervision of the lower POCs.
He said a local POC must earn an overall percentage score of not less than 65 percent to pass the audit and must not get a score lower than 50 percent in any of the six pillars, namely Organization, Meetings, Policies, Policies, Plan and Budget, Reports, Innovations and General Supervision, to be eligible for awards such as the Seal of Good and Local Governance. LGUs integrating modern strategies will also receive additional points.
“The assessment is done every year to strengthen POCs in localities and determine new mechanisms that may enrich peace and order and public safety,” Abalos said.