Alliance building - anong basis, key features and models?*

A team from Western Basilan Alliance (WBA) on Study Tour to
the Metro Naga Development Council (MNDC) in September 2018.
(Photo credit: IAG)

Legal basis. Contemporary alliance building among local governments in the Philippines traces its beginning to the Local Government Code of 1991 where in Section 33, it provides that “local government units may, through appropriate ordinances, group themselves, consolidate or coordinate their effort, services and resources for purpose commonly beneficial to them". Since then more then twenty (20) alliances have been organized across the country. There are alliances specific about health development, coastal resources development, urban development and alliances centered around the preservation and protection of shared mountain range, marshland and lake. Thus, the Western Basilan Alliance (WBA) is perhaps the latest addition to this list.

From local government alliance to interlocal cooperation. While the beginning has been focused on local government alliances, in the 2nd national summit, there was a recommendation to change from more exclusive local government alliances, towards a more inclusive and "generalized term to inter-local because the members may come from the civil society, private sector and other sectors", or simply the ILC.

Key features of ILC. There are four (4) key features of any interlocal alliance:

1. A common purpose
2. A coordinating structure
3. A commonly agreed upon systems
4. Pooled resources

Alliance configurations. There are also four (4) alliance configurations:

1. All-LGU or Natural Alliance - "These are LGUs coming together but not forming a new juridical entity. The legal binding document for this configuration is the Memorandum of Agreement", e.g. Southeast Cebu Coastal Resource Management Council(SCCRMC) and Lanuza Bay Development Alliance (LBDA) in Surigao del Sur.
   
   
2. All-LGU Alliance with a new juridical entity - "This alliance configuration is created through congressional acts, presidential executive order or provincial executive order", e.g. "Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) and Partido Development Authority (PDA). 
   
   
3. All-Government Alliance –This alliance is made up of LGUs and national line agencies. One example is the Lake Mainit Development Alliance(LMDA).
   
   
4. Public-Private Sector Alliance - "Institutionalized in the National Integrated Protected Areas System (NIPAS) Act which is the basis for the creation of the PAMB and EO 205 which is the basis for the creation of the Inter-Local Health Zone (ILHZ)", e.g. Libertad, Pandan, Sebaste and Culasi Bay Wide Management Council(LIPASECU) and Alliance of Northern Iloilo for Health Development (ANIHEAD).

WBA is currently an all-LGU alliance (#1).

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Reference: EU-GIZ-CIDA-PDF (2012). "Critical Ingredients in Building and Sustaining Alliance/Inter-Local Cooperation", pages  15 to 21. - https://www.ab.gov.tr/files/ardb/evt/1_avrupa_birligi/1_9_politikalar/1_9_8_dis_politika/Critical_ingredients_in_building_and_sustaining_inter-local_cooperation.pdf  

WBA conducts 2nd training, focuses on advocacy, operations manual and conceptualizing proposals

Provincial administrator Manny Muarip relating to the participants
the evolution of the "alliance" idea, and how it transform from working and success
in the security sector towards the development platform under WBA.

Zamboanga City (December 12, 2018) - Western Basilan Alliance (WBA) conducts its 2nd training series from December 10 to 14, 2018, at the Cecille's Hotel, Tumaga Porcentro, Zamboanga City. The training focus includes generating inputs for the WBA's Operations Manual, Advocacy and Proposal Concepts.

Modeling Inter-LGU Alliance Building (MILAB) Project manager Noor Saada said, this is a capacity building initiative to expose WBA's change agents and advocates on the different dimensions of alliance building.

Palawan-based Kareen "Kakay" Oloroso is the inter-local cooperation specialist and training consultant. She emphasized that more than the joint initiatives is the need for shared vision on why WBA should be pursued, what it can achieved and how this shared vision can be pursued.

Miriam Suacito, Executive Director of Nagdilaab Foundation, Inc., in her presentation drives down the essence of CSO participation in local development, tracing its roots and evolution, the laws that promotes it and models and lessons learned over the years.

Zamboanga City-based PDI correspondent Julie Alipala shares with the participants ways on how to do creative messaging through different media.

DILG Provincial Director Mr. Abou Mohammad E. Asmawil discussed "Building Inter-LGU Alliance" on the 4th day from the perspective of it being a mandate under the Local Government Code.

Provincial administrator Manny Muarip relates the unwritten story of inter-LGU alliance that has started to take form in combating local manifestations of violent extremism; and how this cooperation evolve into Western Basilan Alliance. In his message, he emphasizes that alliance should embrace the different sectors and work on the alliance building has just started. "Walang ibang Basilan, iisa lang ang Basilan natin, kaya kailangan natin ito itaguyod at pagbutihin."

Western Basilan Alliance is the first interlocal cooperation in Basilan and is being capacitated by the AECID-funded MILAB Project, implemented by the Institute for Autonomy and Governance (IAG) with the Zamboanga-Basilan Integrated Development Alliance (ZABIDA) as CSO partner.