October 28–29, 2026 | Naga City People’s Council Empowerment Hall — The 2026 Regional Local People’s Council (LPC) Forum, held on October 28–29 at the Naga City People’s Council Empowerment Hall, brought together the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), civil society organizations (CSOs), and local people’s council advocates to strengthen citizen participation in local governance. Through benchmarking activities and discussions with the Naga City People’s Council (NCPC), participants explored the successes, challenges, and lessons from three decades of people’s participation, with the goal of building more effective and sustainable local people’s councils in their respective communities.

Organized by the DILG under the Support for the Local Governance Program (SLGP), the two-day activity sought to empower the citizenry and strengthen local governance through effective and meaningful people’s councils. It was anchored on DILG Memorandum Circular No. 2021-012, as amended by DILG Memorandum Circular No. 2021-054, which provides a framework for institutionalizing civil society participation in local governance.

The first day featured a benchmarking activity with the Municipality of Bula People’s Council (MBPC), giving participants an opportunity to learn from its experience and practices.

The second day centered on an engagement with the NCPC, recognized as the oldest people’s council in the Philippines, with thirty years of experience in advancing civil society participation in local governance. Eighteen (18) municipalities from all over the Bikol Region participated in the benchmarking activity with the NCPC.

More than a presentation of achievements, the engagement with Naga City offered an opportunity to examine the experiences, challenges, relationships, and institutional practices behind the council’s three decades of work.

Beyond Success Stories: Understanding the Journey

The second day’s session featured a panel composed of Elmer T. Sto. Domingo, Chairperson of the Naga City People’s Council; Lorrybel I. Nachor, Executive Director of the NCPC; Dennis B. Gonzaga, Public Information Officer of the NCPC; Elmer M. Villanueva Jr., City Local Government Operations Officer of DILG–Naga City; and Darlyn D. Ayende, Chief of the Local Government Monitoring and Evaluation Division (LGMED).

The exchange went beyond the question of what the NCPC had accomplished. It also explored how these accomplishments came about, the challenges encountered along the way, and the relationships and institutional practices that allowed the council to evolve over time.

For participating CSOs and LPC advocates, the distinction was important. The experience of an established people’s council offers more than a list of good practices to replicate. It provides insights into the processes of organizing, negotiating, building partnerships, and sustaining engagement within a particular local political and institutional environment.

The NCPC’s thirty-year journey illustrated the value of perseverance and institutional development. At the same time, it underscored that meaningful citizen participation requires continuous work—not only in strengthening organizations but also in cultivating productive relationships between civil society and government.

The conversations highlighted the need to foster trust and maintain diplomatic lines of communication between the two sectors. Differences in priorities and perspectives are inevitable, but constructive engagement allows these differences to become opportunities for dialogue rather than barriers to collaboration.

Ultimately, the challenge is to build local people’s councils that are not merely established on paper but are functional in practice: organizations capable of representing community interests, contributing to policy discussions, and participating meaningfully in local decision-making.

From Legal Mandate to Meaningful Participation

The DILG memorandum circulars provide an important foundation for institutionalizing people’s participation in local governance. They encourage local government units (LGUs) to create spaces for citizen engagement while giving CSOs a stronger basis for advocating their active participation in governance processes.

However, a policy framework, no matter how important, is only the starting point.

Its provisions must translate into actual opportunities for citizens to engage with government, contribute to development priorities, and participate in decisions that affect their communities. This requires both an openness on the part of local governments and the organizational capacity of civil society to take advantage of the spaces available to them.

The forum therefore examined the different ways local people’s councils can move beyond representation and consultation toward more substantive participation.

These include advocacy and participatory planning; networking, partnership, and linkage building; and the integration of cross-cutting concerns involving climate action, gender equality, youth development, peace and order, and other local priorities.

Participants also recognized the importance of resource mobilization and sustained information, education, and communication (IEC) initiatives. These efforts can help broaden public awareness, strengthen organizational capacity, encourage participation, and build the support necessary for councils to remain active and effective.

Another key area is the participation of CSOs in legislative committees, special bodies, and executive councils. Through these institutional mechanisms, organized citizens can contribute their perspectives, raise community concerns, and help shape policies and programs.

Equally important is active participation in the local budgeting process. The idea of co-creating the city’s budget emphasizes that citizens should have meaningful opportunities to identify priorities, contribute to discussions on public expenditure, and help ensure that government resources respond to actual community needs.

These areas of engagement point toward a more substantive understanding of participatory governance: people are not simply recipients of public services but partners in defining priorities, developing solutions, and determining the direction of local development.

The discussions also raised questions about the responsibilities and functions of CSO desks once local people’s councils are established. Clarifying these roles, along with the corresponding coordination mechanisms and institutional relationships, is important to ensure that people’s councils complement existing structures and strengthen the broader system of civil society engagement.

Learning from Naga and Bula Without Losing Local Identity

While the experiences of Naga City and Bula provided valuable reference points, the forum also emphasized that there is no universal formula for establishing and sustaining an effective people’s council.

Each locality operates within its own political landscape, institutional environment, civil society networks, and community priorities. The structures and practices that have evolved in Naga City over thirty years cannot simply be transplanted into another municipality or city without considering these differences.

For CSOs and local people’s council advocates, the first step is to understand their own context: the relationships among local stakeholders, the opportunities for engagement, the constraints that may need to be addressed, and the resources available to support collective action.

From this understanding, they can develop approaches suited to their circumstances. They may begin by strengthening existing organizations, building coalitions, improving communication with local officials, or identifying practical entry points into local planning and decision-making.

The essential task is to evolve, grow, and become sustainable.

The NCPC’s experience offers important lessons, but its value lies not in providing a blueprint that every locality must follow. Rather, it demonstrates what sustained engagement and institutional development can achieve over time.

The challenge for other localities is not to become another Naga City or Bula. It is to become the best and most effective version of their own people’s council—one that understands its community, responds to local realities, and develops the capacity to sustain meaningful participation.

Conversations That Lead to Convergence

The 2026 Regional Local People’s Council Forum underscored that strengthening local governance is not solely the responsibility of government institutions. It is a shared undertaking that depends on the willingness of government and civil society to work together, recognize their respective roles, and build relationships founded on trust and mutual accountability. This is where the DILG Memorandum Circular becomes important in that it provides the legal framework upon which the partnership between the local government and the aggrupation of Civil Society Organizations is mandated.

For DILG, the forum formed part of its continuing effort to empower citizens and strengthen local governance through more effective people’s councils. For CSOs and advocacy leaders, it provided an opportunity to reflect on their role in transforming formal mechanisms for participation into spaces for genuine collaboration and collective action.

The conversations in Bula and Naga City also reinforced an important distinction: establishing a people’s council is a milestone but making it effective is an ongoing process. It requires sustained advocacy, institutional learning, meaningful partnerships, and the capacity to adapt to changing local conditions.

Naga City’s thirty years of experience stand as a testament to the possibilities of sustained civil society participation. Its successes offer inspiration, while its challenges provide equally important lessons for those beginning or strengthening their own journeys. In the end, conversations become meaningful when they lead to convergence—when experiences are shared, perspectives are understood, and common ground is translated into collective action.

The task at hand for emerging and newly established Local People’s Councils is not to reproduce another locality’s success, but to build councils that are rooted in their own communities, responsive to their own realities, reflective of the values and aspirations of the local sectors and advocates, and relevant in making citizen participation an enduring part of inclusive local governance.

The header image features the backdrop banners at the Naga City People’s Council Empowerment Hall. All photos are courtesy of the NCPC.

About the author:

DENNIS B. GONZAGA: Writer, critic, and academician. Former Humanities faculty at Ateneo de Naga University. Curator of The 416 Art Space in Naga City. Advocate for local culture. AB Political Science graduate, Ateneo de Naga University; MA Asian Studies graduate , University of the Philippines. Public Information Officer, Naga City People’s Council.