A fiscal decentralization strategy to help empower local-level governments towards boosting economic activity and reducing poverty levels in their respective communities has so far yielded mixed results. Not only have the pace of progress been too slow and the benefits too limited to make an impact on people’s social conditions in the countryside, the decentralization effort launched over 20 years ago appears to be now relegated to the backburner as the Aquino government takes on more pressing priorities in its campaign against corruption and poverty.
Low on results, local government decentralization heads for tweaks—or the backburner
