Govt needs to work better with LGUs

IN a recent editorial, we urged the national government, represented by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID), to be more flexible in working with local government units (LGUs), whose leaders have developed practical and innovative ideas to manage their peoples’ needs during the Luzon-wide enhanced community quarantine. That is still our view in spite of President Rodrigo Duterte’s admonishment — which, in fact, seemed to contradict his earlier call to LGUs to “do whatever they could” to help the anti-coronavirus campaign, for local leaders not to stray from the guidelines handed down by the IATF-EID.

But recent events have clearly demonstrated that the relationship between the national government and the LGUs is very much a two-way street, particularly now amid one of the biggest crises the nation has faced since World War 2. A great many local government officials have been “taking matters into their own hands” too far, whether out of misplaced zeal, misunderstanding of government policies and rules, or, perhaps in some cases, more questionable motives. In almost every case, these local policies are imposed to the detriment of the people they are intended to serve and the entire national effort to stop the coronavirus pandemic.