Political Leadership and Education Politics

Philippine Political Science Journal, 2016
VOL. 37, NO. 2, 111–134

http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01154451.2016.1193987
Political leadership and education politics: the mayor and

education services in Nasugbu, Batangas
Jan Robert R. Go
Department of Political Science, University of the Philippines Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines
ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

This study looks at political leadership and education politics at the Received 7 December 2015
municipal level. In particular, it looks at the informal rules governing Accepted 10 May 2016
the local education service sector, and how these rules affected the KEYWORDS
assumed roles of the municipal mayor as the local chief executive Decentralization; education
and as one of the local school board co-chairs in the municipality politics; informal rules;
of Nasugbu in the province of Batangas. Using a new institutional local political leadership;
approach, this study focuses on the informal institutions or the municipal mayor; Nasugbu;
rules-in-use in the context of local education politics, and uses new institutionalism; rules-
Ostrom’s typology of working rules to identify the specific rules and in-use
Leach and Lowndes’ classification of leadership roles. The findings
suggest that the municipal mayor, through the informal rules, was
able to shape, create, and/or recreate his position. This enabled him
to assume specific roles in the local education service sector, which
are not necessarily provided in the formal rules. However, there were
limitations as to the extent of the effect of rules-in-use and the kind
of roles the mayor assumed.
Introduction
With the passage of the Local Government Code (LGC) of 1991 or Republic Act No. 7160,
local government units (LGUs) were given additional powers, duties, and responsibilities.
Several service sectors originally handled by the national government and its agencies were
decentralized to the local level. However, not all service sectors were fully devolved. For
example, the education service sector has been devolved only in the classroom and building
construction and maintenance aspects (Atienza 2006; Brillantes 2003). The curricular aspects,
which are considered the more substantive aspects in the area of education, remain with
the national agency – the Department of Education (DepEd; formerly Department of
Education, Culture, and Sports [DECS]). Despite this limited devolved power, the LGUs are
still expected to be proactive, if not playing a greater role, in education service delivery.
Key to ensuring that LGUs are able to respond to their duties not only in the education
sector but in other sectors as well is the active role of the local chief executive (LCE). Since
the LCEs are the chief implementers, the success or failure of programs and projects at the
local level is usually attributed to them (Legaspi 2007). In the LGC of 1991, the LCE is equipped
with more powers in dealing with the new responsibilities of LGUs. They are made co-chairs
CONTACT Jan Robert R. Go jrgo1@up.edu.ph

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112 J. R. R. Go
of various local special bodies, in the case of the education service sector the Local School
Board (LSB), and are also given power over the allocation of resources, subject to the approval
of the local council (e.g. Sangguniang Bayan).
Considering the formal rules, however, LCEs have limited roles in the education service
sector. It then becomes important to inquire about how the LCEs are able to respond to
public expectations. LGUs have to be proactive in delivering education services, on the one
hand, while they have practically limited formal powers on the other. LCEs, therefore, have
to be creative in ensuring that both public expectations and institutional constraints are
satisfied.
Interestingly, most of the studies on LCEs are generally focused on the individual mayors
or governors, i.e. how they as local chief executives in their individual capacities have related
to the citizens or the specific group of people concerned. Some have tried to locate the LCEs
within an institutional context in their studies, such as Atienza’s (2004) study on dynamics
of health devolution in Irosin, Sorsogon and Baliuag, Bulacan; Cainghog’s (2011) work on
health policy-making among the municipalities in Bohol; and Kawanaka’s (2002) study on
Naga City under Jesse Robredo’s leadership. However, most of the studies have dealt with
the political psychology and behavior and leadership styles of local chiefs (see Laya and
Marquez 2012; Legaspi 2007; and, to a certain extent, some studies in Tumbaga 1997). Thus,
it also becomes important to look at the LCE not simply as an individual actor but more
importantly as part of a larger framework, i.e. the local government unit in general, and the
institution of political leadership in particular.
Likewise, few have studied the politics of the local education service sector and its gov-
ernance. Studies usually center on the LSB, like Barcillano’s (2005) study on maximizing the
power of the LSB to improve education outcomes in Naga City and Prilles’ (2006) work on
the reinvention of the LSB, also in Naga City. There is more to these that the literature might
have failed to touch on, such as the deeper understanding of the politics in and the roles
played by the local government, particularly the local chief executive, in the delivery of
education services at the local level.
Filling these gaps in the literature, this study looks at political leadership in the context
of education politics at the municipal level. It is primarily concerned with the rules governing
local political leadership and the roles of the local chief executive. In particular, the study
focuses on the informal rules and the roles assumed by the local chief executive of Nasugbu,
Batangas in ensuring that the responsibilities related to the education service sector are
responded to. The study has two main objectives: (1) to identify the informal rules governing
the local education service sector; and based on the existing rules-in-use, (2) to determine
how these informal rules have shaped the roles assumed by the municipal mayor who is
both the local chief executive and one of the local school board co-chairs in the municipality
of Nasugbu in the province of Batangas. This is done using a new institutional framework of
analysis.
This article has five parts. The first part discusses the framework and research method
employed in this study. The second part briefly presents the profile of Nasugbu, Batangas.
The third part explores the decentralization of education in the Philippines through the
formal institutions or the rules-in-form. This section enumerates the formal constraints to
local political leadership, as well as the LGU. It focuses on the provisions of the LGC of 1991
concerning the municipal mayor, the LSB, and the Special Education Fund (SEF). The fourth
part looks at the case of the municipality of Nasugbu, Batangas. This section identifies the

Philippine Political Science Journal 113
different rules-in-use, through the working rules, in Nasugbu, Batangas. It ends with an
analysis of the roles assumed by the municipal mayor based on the identified informal rules.
A concluding section at the end of the article summarizes the points raised in this study and
lists possible areas for future research.
Frameworks and research method

Institutions for new institutionalists are the “rules of the game in a society or, more formally,
are the humanly devised constraints that shape human interaction” (North 1990, 3). This
distinguishes an institution from a mere organization. Individuals within institutions behave
“according to the set of rules and procedures which define the appropriateness of their
action” (Koelbel 1995, 233). Thus, institutions do not determine or command a particular
behavior. Instead, institutions serve as a framework for understanding those actions and
behaviors.
In defining institutions as rules, Ostrom said that institutions are “prescriptions that define
what actions (or outcomes) are required, prohibited or permitted, and the sanctions author-
ized if the rules are not followed” (as cited in Leach and Lowndes 2007, 185; Lowndes,
Pratchett, and Stoker 2006, 546). Thus, rules create “positions” – the roles that actors assume.
However, “effective political institutions are those that are ‘lived’ by political actors” (Leach
and Lowndes 2007, 185). This makes the focus on informal political institutions more valuable
in political analysis. By looking at the institutions that are realized, the dynamics between
various political actors acting within an institution are revealed. This also justifies the choice
of new institutionalism as a framework for this study. The interest of the study is less about
mere enumeration of the formal rules, i.e. the laws and the constitutional provisions, and
more about the actual roles assumed by the local chief executive.
In this study, Ostrom’s (1990) definition of effective political institutions as rules-in-use in
terms of working rules is used.
“Institutions” can be defined as the sets of working rules that are used to determine who is eligi-
ble to make decisions in some arena, what actions are allowed or constrained, what aggregation
rules will be used, what procedures must be followed, what information must or must not be
provided, and what payoffs will be assigned to individuals dependent on their actions. (51)
Since rules-in-use are not self-revealing, the working rules help the researcher in deter-
mining which can be considered a rule and which cannot. This is to differentiate mere habits
from the actual rules and avoid what Hall (as cited in Lowndes 2010) considers conceptual
stretching. In order to do so, the seven working rules need to be identified. Table 1 shows
the different working rules and the specific descriptions of each. The study looked at these
working rules in Nasugbu, Batangas to establish the rules-in-use at the municipal level.
While the study looks at how the local chief executive affected local education politics,
it makes no attempt at providing direct causal connections between the two. The study is
more concerned with the relationships connected to local political leadership, and therefore
attempts to provide a “thick description” of the dynamics within. The value of new institu-
tionalism, therefore, lies in its ability to provoke “nonthreatening, context-specific questions
about rule configurations” (Ostrom 2007, 39), something that is useful if one is to understand
the informal rules or the “rules-in-use.”
In the conceptualization of political leadership, Lowndes and Leach (2004) identified three
propositions in analyzing local political leadership as a political institution (Lowndes and

114 J. R. R. Go
Table 1. The working rules.

Working rules Description
Entry and exit These rules affect the number of participants, their attributes and resources, whether they can
rules enter freely, and the conditions they face in leaving.
Position rules These rules establish positions in the situation.
Scope rules These rules delimit the potential outcomes that can be affected and, working backward, the
actions linked to specific outcomes.
Authority rules These rules assign sets of actions that participants in positions at particular nodes must, may, or
may not take.
Aggregation rules These rules affect the level of control that a participant in a position exercises in the selection of an
action.
Information rules These rules affect the knowledge-contingent information sets of participants.
Payoff rules These rules affect the benefits and costs that will be assigned to particular combinations of actions
and outcomes, and they establish the incentives and deterrents for action.
Source: Ostrom, Elinor. 2007. “Institutional Rational Choice: An Assessment of the Institutional Analysis and Development
Framework.” In Theories of the Policy Process, edited by Paul A. Sabatier, 21–64. Boulder, CO: Westview Press (p. 38).
Leach 2004, 561–564). First, institutions such as local political leadership have both formal
and informal dimensions. Institutions, as rules of the game, are more or less expressed for-
mally through written documents such as laws and constitutions, and informally through
the interaction of actors. Second, local political institutions are embedded in wider institu-
tional frameworks. There are contexts, which may be national or local, that affect the insti-
tution of political leadership. Finally, local political institutions have meaning and effect only
through the actions of individuals. Local political leadership has minimal or no significance
if it is not a working political leadership, or there is no moving political leader. This is why in
the analysis of dynamics at the local level the “real” is better appreciated than the “expressed”
(Immergut 1998).
In order to analyze the political leadership of the mayor, this study considers Kotter and
Lawrence’s classification of leadership roles (as cited in Leach and Lowndes 2007, 187) con-
textualized to the Philippine set-up. First, the mayor is expected to “provide a clear strategic
policy direction,” that is, the mayor is able to define his education agenda. Second, the mayor
must also “ensure good performance; i.e. that the authority’s substantive goals are achieved,
and policies effectively implemented.” Third, the local chief executive must “ensure a stable
and supportive decision-making environment,” primarily through inclusion of actors who
are sympathetic to and supportive of the mayor’s policy agenda. Finally, the mayor is
expected to “use external networks to further [his or her] agenda,” that is, tapping the financial
and political resources outside the municipality. These leadership roles help make sense of
the working rules. The first and second roles are “about ensuring that the authority has a
clear distinctive vision, and that the vision is achieved” (Leach and Lowndes 2007, 187). The
third and fourth are “about ensuring that the conditions necessary to carry out the first two
roles have been established” (Leach and Lowndes 2007, 187).
In sum, the study posits that the informal rules or rules-in-use, more than the formal ones,
shape the leadership roles assumed by the municipal mayor as the local chief executive and
local school board co-chair in the local education service sector. Such assumption of lead-
ership roles has either positively or negatively affected the delivery of education services in
the municipality.
This article uses a case study that provides an in-depth understanding of political lead-
ership and education politics at the municipal level. This also allows the researcher to com-
pare the general framework of decentralization at the national level based on the existing

laws (formal institutions or the rules-in-form) with the actual “operation” at the municipal
level (informal institutions or the rules-in-use).
The case studied is the municipality of Nasugbu in the province of Batangas. Nasugbu
was selected for three reasons. First, Nasugbu is identified as one of the top 30 municipalities
with the highest generated income in the country, owing to its rich agricultural and tourism
industries in 2008. Second, in 2007, Nasugbu was a recipient of the outstanding local gov-
ernment unit award from the Regional Literacy Searches and the Department of Education
for its efforts in promoting education, especially in the non-formal sector, i.e. the alternative
learning system. Lastly, Nasugbu is one of the top 10 municipalities with the highest ratio
of education expenditure to total income, at 14% (PhP 31,353,742) in 2008 (Virola 2010).
The primary source of data for this research is key informant interviews (KIIs). KIIs were
employed to extract the experiences of the different stakeholders in the local education
service sector, to reveal the behavioral patterns of the political actors, and to check and
validate the accounts of other interviews conducted (Pierce 2008). The interviews provided
the backbone of what the rules-in-use or informal rules in the municipality were. The
respondents in the interviews are mostly from the local bureaucracy and education service
sector. The following members of the LSB were interviewed for this study:
(1) the municipal mayor, who is the main subject of the study,

(2) the school district supervisor,
(3) the municipal budget officer, who also acts as the LSB secretary,
(4) the former committee on education chair of the local council,
(5) the representative of public secondary schools,
(6) the municipal treasurer,
(7) the municipal engineer,
(8) the municipal planning and development coordinator,
(9) the municipal administrator.
Aside from those identified above, interviews were also conducted with school principals
and teachers from the different schools visited, namely: (1) Nasugbu West Central School
(Poblacion), the largest elementary school in the municipality, where the Nasugbu West
District Supervisor also holds office; (2) Senator Gil Puyat National High School (Balaytigue),
one of the high schools established during the term of the municipal mayor observed; (3)
Dr Crisogono B. Ermita Sr. Memorial National High School (Pantalan), the main high school
in the municipality; (4) Looc Elementary School and Looc National High School (Looc), one
of the farthest schools from the poblacion (town center); and (5) Nasugbu East Central School
(Lumbangan), where the Nasugbu East District Supervisor holds office.
The study also used document review. Through the documents, the formal structures
both at the national and local levels through laws and orders and other informal arrange-
ments or the rules-in-use in the municipality are revealed. Document review also helps
“develop novel accounts and interpretations of significant events” (Burnham et al. 2008, 208).
The interviews, field visits, and document gathering were conducted between December
2012 and March 2013. In keeping with the standards of research ethics, informed consent
from all key informants and document custodians was secured prior to the conduct of inter-
views and acquisition of documents.

116 J. R. R. Go
Profile of Nasugbu, Batangas

Nasugbu has the largest land area in Western Batangas and second in the whole province,
at 278.5 square kilometers. Figure 1 shows the location of the municipality of Nasugbu in
the province of Batangas. It is located 102 kilometers south of Manila, and 70 kilometers
from Batangas City, the provincial capital. In 2007, around 5% of Batangueños lived in
Nasugbu, making it the most populous municipality in Batangas with 113,926 residents in
24,489 households.
Nasugbu is classified as partly urban with 12 out of its 42 barangays considered urban
areas. The bulk of the population is concentrated in the town center or the poblacion with
a population of 19,092. While the majority of Nasugbu’s population are qualified electors
(65,079), only 51,138 are registered voters as of 2010. There are about 30,000 residents of
Nasugbu within the school age range (5–24), and 96% of them are attending school within
the municipality.
A first income class municipality, Nasugbu’s local income contributes around 36–52% of
its total income. Nasugbu is one of the top 30 municipalities in the Philippines with the
highest locally sourced income and highest tax revenue in 2008. This could be attributed to
the two main industries in Nasugbu: the sugarcane industry and the tourism industry.
Nasugbu is one of the sugarcane baskets in the country, producing 12% of the sugar supply
for the entire province of Batangas. Tourists, even before the rise of Boracay to fame, often
visit Nasugbu, which is home to many beach resorts. Some parts of Nasugbu were declared
a Special Tourism Zone in 2007.
The public school system in Nasugbu follows the organization laid out by the Department
of Education. It has three school districts: Nasugbu West, Nasugbu East, and Nasugbu North.
A school supervisor heads each of the districts.
Nasugbu West District (NWD) covers the Poblacion with 12 barangays, and Barangays
Balaytigue, Bucana, Bulihan, Calayo, Looc, Natipuan, Pantalan, and Papaya. As of the school
year 2011–2012, there are nine elementary schools in NWD. One of the elementary schools
under NWD is Nasugbu West Central School (NWCS), which is the largest elementary school
in terms of student population in the province of Batangas and in Region IV-A Calabarzon,
with 3448 students in the school year 2011–2012.
Barangays Aga, Banilad, Bayabasan, Bilaran, Cogonan, Kaylaway, Kayrilaw, Mataas na Pulo,
Lumbangan, Pingkian, and Tumalim compose the Nasugbu East District (NED). NED super-
vises 12 elementary schools as of school year 2011–2012. Nasugbu North District (NND) is
the newest school district in Nasugbu. Created in 2008, NND includes Barangays Bunducan,
Catandaan, Dayap, Latag, Malapad na Bato, Maugat Panuca, Tala, Utod, and Wawa. NND is
in charge of 11 elementary schools. However, as of the school year 2012–2013, NND was
dissolved. Schools under its supervision reverted to the districts to which they formerly
belonged.
Only public elementary schools are under the supervision of the district supervisor. Public
secondary schools report directly to the schools division superintendent, but are still coursed
through the district supervisors. In Nasugbu, there has been an increase in the number of
public secondary schools from 2004 to 2012. According to the Department of Education
Division of Batangas, in 2004 there were only nine public secondary schools. In 2013, there
are already 12 public secondary schools within the municipality. As of the school year 2011–
2012, there are 16,459 students enrolled in all elementary schools and 8225 students in all
secondary schools within Nasugbu.

In Nasugbu, there is a local school board, as mandated by the LGC of 1991. It is composed
of the municipal mayor, different officials from the local government and local education
bureaucracy, and representatives from various education stakeholders. The board oversees
the delivery of education-related services in the municipality. The board primarily provides
support for the construction and maintenance of classrooms and school buildings.
Decentralization of education in the Philippines: the rules-in-form

In order to establish the formal institutional structure of the decentralized education sector
in the Philippines, a survey of the existing formal rules is in order. Currently, there are two
formal rules affecting the structure of the education service sector in the country. These are
(1) the Local Government Code of 1991 or Republic Act No. 7160, and (2) the Governance
of Basic Education Act of 2001, or Republic Act No. 9155. The former sets out the general
and basic decentralization scheme in the Philippines while the latter reorganized the edu-
cation bureaucracy, from the renaming of the Department of Education, Culture, and Sports
to Department of Education, to the delineation of the duties and responsibilities of education
officials from the national down to the local level.
This study is concerned with local political leadership rather than the structure of the
local education bureaucracy. The succeeding subsections look at the provisions of the LGC
of 1991 in relation to the powers of the municipal mayor, as well as the special institutions
under the education service sector, namely the Local School Board (LSB) and the Special
Education Fund (SEF).
The municipal mayor

The mayor is the local chief executive in a municipality. The LGC of 1991 identified generic
roles for the municipal mayor. The generic roles are specified in the four subparagraphs of
paragraph (b) of Section 444. The municipal mayor shall:
(1) Exercise general supervision and control over all programs, projects, services, and
activities of the municipal government;
(2) Enforce all laws and ordinances relative to the governance of the municipality and
the exercise of its corporate powers provided for under Section 221 of the Code
and implement all approved policies, programs, projects, services and activities
of the municipality;
(3) Initiate and maximize the generation of resources and revenues, and apply the
same to the implementation of development plans, program objectives and pri-
orities as provided for under Section 182 of the Code, particularly those resources
and revenues programmed for agro-industrial development and country-wide
growth and progress; and
(4) Ensure the delivery of basic services and the provision of adequate facilities as
provided for under Section 173 of the Code.
If one is to look for education-related rules, the Code specified two aside from the generic
roles identified above. First, the municipal mayor is tasked to “conduct a palarong bayan, in
coordination with the Department of Education, [Culture and Sports,] as an annual activity
which shall feature traditional sports and disciplines included in national and international

118 J. R. R. Go
games” (Section 444 (b)(1)(xix)). While role does not directly affect education service delivery,
it can still be related to education since the beneficiaries of this event are the elementary
and high school students within the municipality. Also, as will be mentioned below, sports
activities are supposed to be funded by the special education fund.
The second function is still general but makes reference to the only devolved function
for the education sector. The municipal mayor shall “coordinate the implementation of tech-
nical services rendered by national and provincial offices, including public works and infra-
structure programs in the municipality” (Section 444 (b)(4)(ii)). This is in line with the duty
of the municipal mayor to ensure the delivery of basic services, i.e. education services, and
the provision of adequate facilities such as school buildings and other school-related
facilities.
Local School Board

The LGC of 1991 also provided for the creation of an LSB at the provincial, city, and municipal
levels. For a municipality, the following shall compose the LSB according to Article 99 (b)(3):
(1) the municipal mayor,

(2) the district supervisor of schools as co-chairs,
(3) the chairman of the education committee of the Sangguniang Bayan,
(4) the municipal treasurer,
(5) the representative of the Pederasyon ng mga Sangguniang Kabataan in the
Sangguniang Bayan,
(6) the duly elected president of the municipal federation of parent-teacher
associations,
(7) the duly elected representative of the teachers’ organizations in the municipality,
and
(8) the duly elected representative of the non-academic personnel of public schools
in the municipality, as members.
Note that the municipal mayor is a member of the LSB and serves as one of its co-chairs.
The LSB has the following functions according to Section 99 of the LGC of 1991:
(a) Determine, in accordance with the criteria set by the Department of Education,
[Culture and Sports,] the annual supplementary budgetary needs for the operation
and maintenance of public schools within the province, city, or municipality, as the
case may be, and the supplementary local cost of meeting such needs, which shall
be reflected in the form of an annual school board budget corresponding to its share
of the proceeds of the special levy on real property constituting the Special Education
Fund and such other sources of revenue as this Code and other laws or ordinances
may provide;
(b) Authorize the provincial, city or municipal treasurer, as the case may be, to disburse
funds from the Special Education Fund pursuant to the budget prepared and in
accordance with existing rules and regulations;
(c) Serve as an advisory committee to the Sanggunian concerned on educational matters
such as, but not limited to, the necessity for and the uses of local appropriations for
educational purposes; and

(d) Recommend changes in the names of public schools within the territorial jurisdiction
of the local government unit for enactment by the Sanggunian concerned.
The main function of the LSB is to determine the allocation of the SEF in financing, among
others, the construction and maintenance of school buildings and other school-related facil-
ities. The LSB also serves as an advisory committee to the Sangguniang Bayan on educa-
tion-related matters. Lastly, the LSB has recommendatory powers to change names of schools
within its jurisdiction. In the case of appointment of district supervisors, school principals,
and other school officials within the municipality, the LGC of 1991 requires the Department
of Education to consult the LSB.
The LSB is required to meet at least once a month. Should the LGU decide to meet more
frequently, it can do so. During its meetings, either the municipal mayor or the district super-
visor, or in the case of multiple district supervisors the one sitting as co-chair, may preside
over the meeting. As a matter of protocol, however, the municipal mayor is given the pref-
erence to preside over the meeting unless he or she defers to the district supervisor.
The allocation and utilization of the SEF are solely under the control of the LSB. As provided
in Section 100 (c), the LSB budget priorities are the following:
(1) Construction, repair, and maintenance of school buildings and other facilities of

public elementary and secondary schools;
(2) Establishment and maintenance of extension classes where necessary; and
(3) Sports activities at the division, district, municipal, and barangay levels.
The district supervisor prepares the annual budget to be approved by the board. Once
the board approves the budget, the appropriations take effect immediately. Appropriations
made by the board are no longer subject to the approval of the Sangguniang Bayan.
Special Education Fund

The LCG of 1991 creates an SEF, which is used to fund education-related expenses at the
local level. A special fund, the SEF is an additional levy of 1% on real property tax. In Section
235, it states that:
A province or city, or a municipality within the Metropolitan Manila Area, may levy and collect
an annual tax of one percent (1%) on the assessed value of real property which shall be in
addition to the basic real property tax. The proceeds thereof shall exclusively accrue to the
Special Education Fund (SEF). (Emphasis mine.)
In the case of a municipality, the SEF is divided equally between the province (50%) and
the municipality (50%) concerned. For cities, they get the whole SEF allocation. The SEF can
be used for the following purposes: (1) operation and maintenance of public schools; (2)
construction and repair of school buildings, facilities, and equipment; (3) educational
research; (4) purchase of books and periodicals; and (5) sports development (Section 272).
Limitations of rules-in-form
These formal rules or rules-in-form provide an institutional context in studying the local
chief executive in Nasugbu, Batangas. These are the formal constraints that are expected to
shape the actions and behavior of the municipal mayor. However, the education-related
powers and functions provided in the formal rules are limited and focus on infrastructure

120 J. R. R. Go
and financing. For example, the municipal mayor only has two main functions, albeit
non-substantive. The prescribed membership of the LSB sidelines certain key actors and
stakeholders in the education sector. The allowable expenses to be charged to SEF are also
restricted and do not cover other possible expenses directly affecting or incidental to the
delivery of education services. Indeed, these limitations create opportunities for local chief
executives and other actors to maneuver, go around the formal rules, and employ informal
arrangements in order to achieve specific goals and deliver education services to their
constituency.
Political leadership: the rules-in-use

Noting the limitations of formal political institutions, expressed through rules, local
governments as well as the actors, through their constant interaction, consciously or
otherwise, create informal means in performing their roles and tasks. Informal rules, or the
rules-in-use, are “ways by which human beings have structured human interaction” (North
1990, 36). While formal rules are products of astringent, conscious, and more rational process,
informal rules are formed through the day-to-day interaction of various actors within an
organization – the working rules. These rules affect the structure of an action situation, that
is, the “immediate structure affecting a process of interest” (Ostrom 2007, 29).
The rules-in-use in Nasugbu’s education service sector

The following presents a narration of the different working rules governing the actions
primarily of the local chief executive, as well as other actors, in the municipality of Nasugbu.
There are seven types of working rules, namely entry and exit rules, position rules, authority
rules, scope rules, aggregation rules, information rules, and payoff rules.
Entry and exit rules

Entry and exit rules focus on the participants. In this case, the foci are the LSB in general, and
the local chief executive in particular. These rules determine the “number of participants,
their attributes and resources, whether they can enter freely, and the conditions they face
for leaving” (Ostrom 2007, 38).
The LGU of Nasugbu, through its LSB, is considered a participant in the education service
sector. There should be at least eight members of the LSB as enumerated in the LGC of 1991.
In Nasugbu, however, the LSB has 12 members. The members come from different offices
in the local bureaucracy and local education service sector. Of the 12 members, four are not
originally part of the membership prescribed by law. These four are: (1) the municipal plan-
ning and development coordinator, (2) the municipal engineer, (3) the municipal adminis-
trator, and (4) a representative from the secondary schools. The municipal mayor appoints
them as members and their appointment to the board lasts until the end of the mayor’s
term.
The municipal mayor, who serves as the head of the LGU and one of the co-chairs of the
LSB, is a key participant in education service delivery in Nasugbu. As mentioned in the section
on the formal rules, the municipal mayor is legally mandated to sit as one of the co-chairs
of the LSB. He was first elected in the 2004 general elections and re-elected for second (in
2007) and third (in 2010) terms. During the said periods, he assumed the leadership in the

local education sector. This study is concerned with his first two terms in office. He finished
his three terms of nine years in 2013. After his term as municipal mayor ended, he ceased
to assume his leadership roles both in the LGU and the LSB.4
Since the LCE is part of the LSB, their pool of resources with respect to education service
delivery is the same. This is the SEF collection of the Nasugbu LGU. Though the apportion-
ment and appropriation of this fund are set by the LSB, specific members of the board are
able to exercise some influence over how the said distribution is carried out. This will be
explored later in this article.
Position rules
Rules create positions occupied by various actors. These rules are known as position rules.
In relation to rules-in-use, these rules show how the actors have shaped and created (or
recreated) their positions. This is of high importance in this study since its concern is mainly
with the roles the local chief executive assumes.
The municipal mayor, arguably, is both the most important position and the most impor-
tant actor in the education service sector. While the municipal mayor serves as a co-chair in
the LSB and there is another co-equal chair that is the district supervisor, in reality the position
of the mayor supersedes this formal arrangement. Informally, the mayor acts as the chair of
the board. As some members of the LSB intimated in the interviews,5 the mayor practically
has the last say on all matters. Any board approval is subject to the final approval of the
municipal mayor. In effect, the board’s actions appear more as recommendations than deci-
sions. This is especially true when the mayor is absent during LSB meetings. In this situation,
the municipal mayor was able to shape and recreate his position in the LSB by asserting his
role in the education service sector. For one, he is the LGU’s local chief executive.
While not required, the mayor also took upon himself to visit some of the schools in the
municipality every now and then. In an interview with the mayor,6 he said that he felt it was
incumbent upon him to know the situation of the schools, the teachers, and the students
on the ground. In the schools visited for this study, however, the principals and teachers said
the mayor had failed to visit them. Since the beginning of his term in 2004, the schools in
far barangays like Balaytigue and Looc7 were never visited by the mayor despite their invi-
tation for him to speak at their graduation ceremonies.8 The mayor only sends a represent-
ative to deliver his message. Though not successful in all cases, this could be another way
of recreating the position of the mayor.
Authority rules
Authority rules define the “set of actions that participants in positions at particular nodes
must, may or may not take” (Ostrom 2007, 38). Like position rules, authority rules are impor-
tant in this study. These rules determine the roles of various actors or the local chief executive,
in particular, in an action situation. They form constraints as to what actions are required,
permitted, or even prohibited.
Whenever the mayor is present, he presides over meetings. Otherwise he allows the
district supervisor, or sometimes the municipal administrator, to act on his behalf. This should
be interesting because the municipal administrator is not originally a member of the LSB
and is not necessarily a perfect substitute for the mayor. In an interview,9 the mayor said that
as the local chief executive, he also assumes other roles in various aspects of LGU

122 J. R. R. Go
management. Nevertheless, the municipal mayor exercises and exhibits full authority over
the members of the LSB and, by extension, the local education service sector.
Another deviation from the rules-in-form is the absence of the palarong bayan or local
sports fest. Formally, the municipal mayor should conduct the said event for the holistic
development of the elementary and high school students. However, from 2004 to 2010, the
municipality failed to organize one. In an interview,10 the district supervisor recalled that
they used the funds to build more classrooms instead of organizing a sports fest.
In terms of resources, as mentioned earlier, the board decides on the SEF allocation as a
body. However, it should also be noted that the mayor gets a share from the SEF allocations.
This means that the SEF pie is divided into four (at some point, five):11 the municipal mayor,
the two (or three) school districts, and the secondary schools. However, there is no guarantee
that the division among the four is equal, i.e. that they each get 25% of the total amount.
Some of the LSB members interviewed claimed that the mayor takes the bulk, if not almost
half, of the SEF allocations. Upon checking the actual allocations, such distribution is not
reflected. During an interview with the mayor,12 he said that the funds do not go directly to
him anyway. The funds allotted under him are used to provide education-related assistance
to those who are in need, such as scholarships. Parents and students would usually go to
the mayor’s office to seek help directly. Without a proper source of funds for the said purpose,
the mayor uses the SEF available at his disposal.
Aside from the education-related assistance the mayor provides, he also has a priority list
of projects. The list contains specific construction or repair needs of different elementary
and secondary school buildings and/or classrooms within the municipality. This is a separate
list from those submitted by the district supervisors and the secondary schools represent-
ative. However, the mayor stressed that he sets aside his list if there are more immediate
concerns, such as repairs to damaged rooms due to natural calamities. While these actions
may have positive implications, especially for the political career of the LCE, it may create
barriers. This will be elaborated in a later section.
The municipal mayor used his appointing powers. He appointed additional members to
the LSB who were not originally identified in the LGC of 1991. In the section on entry and
exit rules above, it was explained that the municipal mayor appointed four additional mem-
bers to the board. Of the four, it is in the appointment of the secondary schools representative
that the mayor, arguably, most greatly exercised his appointing power. In the LGC of 1991,
there is no provision for a secondary schools representative on the board. The only members
from the education sector in the Code are the district supervisor(s). The addition of the
secondary schools representative, according to the mayor, balances the concerns raised in
the LSB. Given that district supervisors are more concerned with elementary schools, there
is less or even no opportunity for the problems and issues of secondary schools to be dis-
cussed. The current members of the LSB saw this as a bold move by the mayor. In nearby
municipalities, as the secondary schools representative pointed out, officials have also made
an inquiry to the Department of Education Division of Batangas office on the possibilities
of replicating this action by the Nasugbu mayor and appointing a secondary schools repre-
sentative in their LSBs.13
Scope rules
Scope rules determine the extent of potential outcomes. These rules identify how extensive
or limited the participation of an actor in an action situation has been, i.e. how involved the

Table 2. Attendance at LSB meetings, Local School Board, municipality of Nasugbu, Batangas, 2006–
2009.
Members 2006 2007 2008 2009 Total
Total actual meetings per year* 2 8 7 8 25
Municipal Mayor 0 4 1 4 9
Schools District Supervisor (Nasugbu East) 1 8 6 8 23
Schools District Supervisor (Nasugbu West) 2 5 4 7 18
Schools District Supervisor (Nasugbu North) – – 3 7 10
Representative, Public Secondary Schools 2 7 6 8 23
Chair, Committee on Education, Sangguniang Bayan 1 4 4 7 16
President, Sangguniang Kabataan Federation 0 0 0 1 1
President, PTCA Federation 1 0 4 5 10
Municipal Budget Officer 2 8 6 7 23
Municipal Engineer 2 7 7 8 24
Municipal Planning and Development Coordinator 1 5 6 5 17
Municipal Treasurer 0 1 1 2 4
Municipal Administrator 0 0 0 0 0
Source: Minutes of the Local School Board Meeting, Municipality of Nasugbu, Local School Board, Municipality of Nasugbu,
Batangas 2006–2009.
*
Based on the minutes of the LSB meetings provided by the LSB secretary, Local School Board, Municipality of Nasugbu,
local chief executive is in the decision-making and other processes and procedures in the
local education service sector.
The participation of the municipal mayor in the education service sector of Nasugbu can
be taken in two senses. In the first sense, there is limited physical participation on the part of
the municipal mayor. This follows the general trend of participation among other politi-
cian-members of the LSB like the local council education committee chair and the Sangguniang
Kabataan representative. Since their attention is divided and they have other concerns to
attend to, their involvement in education service delivery is constrained, if not restrained.14
For example, the mayor has an erratic attendance record at LSB meetings from 2006 to 2009
(see Table 2 for the complete attendance record of LSB members). Out of 25 meetings, the
mayor was only able to attend nine. According to the mayor, his attendance depends on the
agenda of the meeting. If the agenda of the meeting was urgent or highly important – for
example, approval of the budget and granting authority to engage in a loan – the mayor
would most likely attend the meeting. Otherwise the mayor allows the municipal administrator
to sit on his behalf and the district supervisor to preside.15 Interestingly, records show that the
municipal administrator was not able to attend any of the meetings from 2006 to 2009.
In the second sense, the municipal mayor’s participation is also extensive. As mentioned
above, the municipal mayor has been able to recreate his position and exercise a significant
amount of authority over decision-making and other processes and activities inside and
outside of the LSB. So even if he is absent from the LSB meetings, the mayor is still able to
control the decisions made by the board, and can still exercise his education-related duties.
These two contrasting scope rules have effects on aggregation rules.
Aggregation rules
Actions taken by actors have an impact on outcomes. Aggregation rules, in the case of
education service delivery, look at how much control actors have in choosing what actions
to undertake, and how such actions affect the desired outcome, i.e. improved delivery of
education services.

124 J. R. R. Go
The municipal mayor leads and directs the board. This is because the mayor sets the
municipal government’s agenda on education. In an interview,16 the mayor said that when
he assumed his position as mayor in 2004, he was saddened upon learning that the class-
room–student and teacher–student ratios for schools in the municipality were very high.
There were very few classrooms and teachers to accommodate the growing student popu-
lation in the municipality. The mayor decided to take two related actions: first, to make a
comprehensive “program” on classroom and school building construction in the municipality;
and second, to hire additional teachers as long as the budget allows. These actions are
reflections of how the mayor exercises his control over the decision-making in the LSB in
particular and the LGU in general. As expected, these two actions led to an increase in the
number of classrooms and school buildings and an increase in the number of LSB-funded
teachers.
Other actions taken by the LSB are worth mentioning: (1) the creation of additional sec-
ondary schools to cater to the needs of students; (2) the purchase of additional equipment
such as projectors and computers for use in schools; and (3) the purchase of additional
textbooks to supplement those provided by the national government. These actions are
collectively made and decided by the LSB. However, as mentioned above, the final approval
for any action to be undertaken by the LSB rests solely with the municipal mayor.
Aside from the mayor, some officials also claim credit for these actions.17 For example,
the municipal planning and development coordinator claimed that it was his idea to compile
the classroom needs of the schools and create a comprehensive “program” instead of con-
structing one classroom at a time. The district supervisor, who is also the LSB co-chair, also
claimed that he was responsible for the recruitment of additional schoolteachers.
Nevertheless, these were all carried out under the leadership of the municipal mayor.
Information rules
Information rules are those affecting what the participants know or do not know. These are
rules concerning which information is available to the public, which should be made public,
or which should be kept secret.
In Nasugbu, there is a bulletin board near the entrance of the municipal hall where impor-
tant documents such as ordinances, statements from the municipal treasury, budget, and
accounting offices are posted. They are available for public scrutiny, in accordance with the
Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG)’s full disclosure policy. For the municipal
government’s compliance with this policy, Nasugbu was recognized by the DILG and was
awarded the Seal of Good Housekeeping (SGH). However, a closer inspection of the docu-
ments would reveal that not all information is made available to the public. Posted on the
board were summaries of the original documents; the documents themselves are considered
too technical and not comprehensible to a layperson.
In the course of this study, since accessing some data from the municipal offices is
required, documents were requested from corresponding local officials. While the municipal
mayor tries to be transparent and open as much as he can, this may not be the case in other
offices. Documents and information that are supposed to be public and freely available
would still require the local chief executive’s approval before release. This was the experience
not only in one office but almost all offices, even that of the LSB secretariat. Minutes of the
LSB meetings were deemed personal, i.e. permission to access copies of the minutes should
be asked from the former secretary who made the minutes, and not the current LSB

Figure 1. Location of Nasugbu in Batangas (image from “Nasugbu, Batangas.” 2005. Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.
org).
secretary.18 While the municipal mayor can overrule such an arrangement, it becomes a
barrier for any citizen to obtain information.
Payoff rules
In terms of benefits and costs as consequences of the actions undertaken by participants,
the payoff rules “establish incentives and deterrents for action” (Ostrom 2007, 38). These rules
also identify the barriers faced by the actors and how they overcame such barriers.
Collectively, the LSB considers the fact that students have classrooms and facilities to use
as incentives in delivering education services. However, there are still individual incentives
coming from their collective actions. More glaring are the incentives of the municipal mayor,
who is a politician. Since projects and programs of the LSB are implemented during the term
of office of the mayor, any success (or failure) is attributed to the efforts (or lack thereof ) of
the mayor. Similarly, the public does not necessarily regard the mayor as the co-chair of the
LSB. In fact, a typical Nasugbu citizen may not know that there is an LSB and that the mayor
sits as one of the co-chairs. Instead, the mayor is recognized for his role as the local chief
executive.
Elsewhere in the country, politicians append their names in the school buildings and
classrooms constructed during their term of office. Prominent in the province of Batangas
is the “Senator Ralph G. Recto Type of School Building.”19 In Nasugbu, some school buildings
bear the label “Apacible Type of School Building,” named after the former mayors (Rosario
and Raymund Apacible).20 As for the municipal mayor observed in this study, there was no
such explicit attribution. Instead, buildings and classrooms bear the motto “Bayan Ko, Mahal
Ko” (see Figure 2). These may not contain the name of the mayor, but everyone associates
them with him. “Bayan Ko, Mahal Ko” is the motto of his administration.
Aside from the motto, LSB-funded school buildings and classrooms in all schools in the
municipality were repainted from their original colors to sky blue, the official campaign color
of the municipal mayor. This was not just for schools; barangay halls, waiting sheds, health
centers and other local government offices were repainted in sky blue as well. These visual
signs, the motto, and the colors give an impression of accomplishments. To put it nicely, the
municipal mayor was able to take advantage of the resources available to the LSB – that is,

126 J. R. R. Go
Figure 2. “Bayan Ko, Mahal Ko” type school building in Nasugbu East Central School (photo taken by the
author).
the SEF – and work in his own way and achieve positive feedback from the people. He was
able to serve three full terms in office, ending in June 2013.
If the mayor was able to use his position in the LSB to elicit incentives, not everyone sees
it that way. On certain occasions, the municipal mayor became the barrier in the delivery of
education services, as some members of the LSB would say during separate interviews.21 As
a politician, there is a tendency for the mayor to agree to any proposal or grant any request
for scholarships, financial assistance, and even teaching positions under the LSB payroll. In
an attempt to respond positively to constituents, other members of the board are placed in
difficult situations: either some district supervisors have to give up priority projects, which
may compromise other services, or they have to prioritize projects that are not really urgent.
Also, there is a perceived bias of the mayor toward the secondary schools representative in
the LSB as his school received a large allotment and not all secondary schools get the same
benefits.
These seven sets of working rules provide a sketch of the rules-in-use in the municipality
of Nasugbu in relation to the education service sector. In particular, these rules illustrate the
roles assumed by the municipal mayor in the course of his performance of the functions
provided by the LGC of 1991. These rules have shaped the actions and behavior of the
municipal mayor.
Roles of the municipal mayor

Leadership is key in ensuring that proper and quality education services are provided to the
public. In one way or another, the various rules-in-use show how the municipal mayor’s
leadership was instrumental in the agenda, decisions, and other actions taken by the local
government. The following is a discussion of the leadership roles the municipal mayor
assumed.

On policy direction
The role of determining the local education service sector policy direction rests, formally,
with the LSB. This is not necessarily the case in Nasugbu. As demonstrated by the working
rules, the municipal mayor assumed the role of setting the local education agenda, along
with the other members of the board. In the exercise of this role, however, the municipal
mayor may have dominated over other members of the LSB. Invoking his position primarily
as the local chief executive, the municipal mayor is able to shape the agenda and policy
direction of the LSB according to how he views it. During interviews with other members of
the board, they said that they most likely yield to the municipal mayor because he is an
elected official, the topmost in their municipality. As stated in the entry and exit rules, the
municipal mayor is only able to participate because he was elected to the position. The
power base of the mayor in asserting this role is his mandate. The municipal mayor interprets
this mandate from the people as his license to set the agenda of the LSB, where he is one of
the co-chairs.
With the mayor’s assumption of this role, other members of the LSB become policy advis-
ers and not decision-makers. The members coming from the education sector, such as the
district supervisors and secondary schools representative, are in a better position to influence
the shaping of and decide on education policies, being practitioners in the field. The payoff
rules are important here. In the recruitment of teachers, for example, the mayor refuses to
lay off LSB-funded teachers. Usually, LSB-funded teachers are non-passers of the Licensure
Examination for Teachers (LET) but are allowed to teach specific subjects or for a limited
period of time. Per advice of the education officials in the municipality, licensed teachers
are to be prioritized. Since laying off may have negative political implications for the mayor,
it has become the policy of the LSB to retain the non-LET passers, despite opposition.
On performance
Political leaders have to work according to a set of expectations from the public while work-
ing within an institutionally constrained environment. Public recognition of accomplish-
ments is critical for the political career of the municipal mayor. Ensuring good performance
on the part of the LSB and the LGU becomes one of the roles assumed by the municipal
mayor. The outcomes of the agenda forwarded by his administration, arguably, reflect his
leadership abilities. This eventually resulted in the re-election of the local chief executive
until his last term. Important in this role are the scope and aggregation rules. They determine
whether actions of the municipal mayor have a positive or negative impact on the outcomes,
i.e. whether the outcomes are those that are desired.
In terms of classroom construction, the number of classrooms built per year increased
from only eight rooms in 2004 to 64 rooms in 2010. The 64 classrooms built using the SEF
are distributed among 25 schools within the municipality (see Table 3). The number of LSB-
funded teachers also increased. From three LSB-funded teachers in 2004, there were 155 by
2010. Of these teachers, 103 were assigned to secondary schools, 46 to elementary schools,
and six to the local Alternative Learning System (ALS). Additional elementary and secondary
schools were also created to cater to far barangays, namely Balaytigue, Bundukan, Catandaan,
and Cogonan. The payoff rules show that the municipal mayor benefited from these accom-
plishments. However, the municipal mayor failed to organize the annual palarong bayan,
which is one of his formal functions.

128 J. R. R. Go
Table 3. Classrooms built by the municipal government.

Year Number of classrooms built Distribution (number of schools)
2004 8 4
2005 14 7
2006 15 7
2007 6 3
2008 22 14
2009 72 27
2010 64 25
Source: General Summary of Accomplishment Report, Local School Board, Local School Board, Municipality of Nasugbu,
Table 4. National Achievement Test (NAT) results for elementary schools in Nasugbu.
Districts 2004–2005 2005–2006 2006–2007 2007–2008 2008–2009 2009–2010
Philippines* 57.46 51.33 57.55 61.14 63.49 64.74
Region IV-A* 61.71 53.89 60.68 64.74 65.38 65.50
Batangas Province** – – – – 78.95 –
Nasugbu 71.00 65.18 74.62 75.70 74.03 80.97
Nasugbu East District 72.75 70.11 73.50 73.28 76.09 83.64
Nasugbu West District 70.86 59.50 78.74 77.64 72.94 79.59
Nasugbu North District 69.39 65.95 71.63 76.18 73.05 79.69
Source: National Achievement Test Results, Division of Batangas, Department of Education, Division of Batangas 2004–
2010; Philippine Statistical Yearbook, National Statistics Office 2004–2011.
*
Mean Percentage Scores (MPS) for Philippines and Region IV-A include scores for mathematics, English, and science.;
**
Scores for Batangas province are not readily available. Only the 2008–2009 score is available.
Table 5. Average NAT rating for secondary schools in Nasugbu.

Subject Areas 2004–2005 2005–2006 2006–2007 2007–2008 2008–2009 2009–2010
Philippines* 47.17 44.51 44.27 47.67 44.35 43.46
Region IV-A* 45.67 40.97 42.92 45.22 41.77 40.68
Batangas Province** – – – – – –
Nasugbu 54.13 55.39 58.75 61.20 51.66 56.49
Math 63.40 53.61 53.57 57.24 42.18 56.45
English 57.96 56.39 63.02 63.64 55.04 55.95
Science 43.40 51.09 52.99 58.61 43.28 53.86
Filipino 46.72 54.86 60.12 59.71 58.82 69.57
Araling Panlipunan 59.15 61.00 64.03 66.82 58.98 46.64
Source: National Achievement Test Results, Division of Batangas, 2004–2010; Philippine Statistical Yearbook; National Sta-
tistics Office 2004–2011.
*
Mean Percentage Scores (MPS) for Philippines and Region IV-A include scores for mathematics, English, and science.;
**
Scores for Batangas province are not readily available. Only the 2008–2009 score is available.
Looking at the National Achievement Test (NAT) scores, the ratings for both elementary
and secondary levels are above the national and regional averages. Tables 4 and 5 show the
NAT scores for the elementary and secondary levels, respectively.
On the decision-making environment

Much of the dynamics between the municipal mayor and other members of the LSB deals
with decision-making. On the one hand, it is important that the municipal mayor asserts his
position on a particular program or policy, especially since he shapes the agenda and policy
direction. On the other hand, it is also important for the mayor to strike a balance between
his ideas and those of other LSB members in decision-making. Instrumental in ensuring that

decisions are made according to the set agenda is creating and maintaining a decision-
making-friendly environment. While there is no attempt to railroad the passage of any
proposals in the LSB, having an environment conducive to effective decision-making is
desirable.
In Nasugbu, the municipal mayor used his position as the local chief executive of the LGU
in order to ensure that the composition of the LSB is what can be considered desirable, i.e.,
members of the board are more or less leaning toward (critically) agreeing with the municipal
mayor’s agenda and not antagonistic to his proposals. As identified in the position and
authority rules, the municipal mayor appointed additional members to the board. This syn-
chronizes the workings of the LSB with that of the LGU. Not that decision-making in the LSB
is always fast-tracked, but internally the LSB is able to smoothly process requests, suggestions
and comments, and even complaints.
Notwithstanding these efforts, there are still criticisms of the municipal mayor’s perfor-
mance. Some members of the board feel that the mayor plays favorite, particularly with
recipients of projects.22 Of the 12 secondary schools, the school of the secondary schools
representative to the LSB receives the most projects and funding allocations. However, other
members of the LSB do not necessarily feel the same way.23
On external networks
External networks are important to the LGU. LGUs are not secluded entities. They are part
of larger frameworks such as the provincial and national governments. Especially in poor
municipalities, the assistance of the higher tiers of government is both necessary and instru-
mental in ensuring that services are provided. Note that the education service sector is not
fully devolved to the LGUs. Thus, the municipal mayor is expected to keep such connections
and networks for the benefit of the LGU. This is almost absent in the case of Nasugbu,
Batangas. The municipality is a first income class and, geographically, a large municipality.
Relatively, therefore, it has enough resources for education spending. The SEF is an additional
levy on real property tax. Naturally, if the municipality is large, there is a larger collection for
the SEF (Table 6 compares Nasugbu’s expenditures on education compared to other munic-
ipalities in the first legislative district of Batangas). Thus, it may not have to demand provisions
from the province or the DepEd. Conversely, the priority of the provincial government, as
well as the national, is the poor LGUs. In the working rules, there was no mention of external
networking, but this does not mean a total absence.
Table 6. Local expenditures for education, first legislative district of Batangas

Municipality 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009* 2010*
Balayan 9,725,949 11,056,313 13,583,783 13,403,204 13,046,334 10,283,231 15,072,396
Calaca 4,070,894 2,779,159 9,983,057 8,044,367 4,918,232 10,672,805 0
Calatagan 2,333,413 4,291,241 4,140,704 7,621,228 4,081,131 6,080,620 5,060,389
Lemery 2,622,944 3,964,555 3,761,331 6,069,046 12,804,152 8,466,141 11,360,919
Lian 1,745,200 1,495,421 2,902,907 1,769,406 2,529,619 6,165,656 0
Nasugbu 14,385,630 26,328,334 28,427,733 27,301,251 31,353,742 20,455,712 13,622,358
Taal 1,131,832 2,012,510 534,810 1,873,579 1,609,059 1,729,828 736,814
Tuy 1,307,845 1,644,651 2,219,046 2,716,552 1,675,622 2,452,954 0
Source: Bureau of Local Government Finance, Statement of Income and Expenditures (by Municipality), 2004-2008; Bureau
of Local Government Finance, Preliminary Statement of Receipts and Expenditures (by Municipality), 2009-2010.
*Values for these years are lower since the bureau only has a preliminary statement. For 2010, there are no data available for
the municipalities of Calaca, Lian, and Tuy.

130 J. R. R. Go
Politically, Nasugbu was a recipient of support from both national and provincial levels.
The municipal mayor, the provincial governor, and the Philippine president from 2004 to
2010 belonged to the same political party, Lakas-NUCD-CMD. Thus, without having to
demand it, the municipality received not only political support but also additional allocations
for school building constructions. Even after the provincial governor shifted to a different
political party prior to 2010, the municipality enjoyed the same kind and level of support.
However, in terms of teacher items and textbooks, the municipal mayor feels the support
from the national government’s DepEd was not sufficient.
Concluding notes
This study has two objectives. First, it looks at the different informal rules or the rules-in-use
that govern the individual actors in the local education service sector of Nasugbu, Batangas.
Second, it examines how the informal rules shape the roles assumed by the municipal mayor
of Nasugbu. The assumption of these roles is seen to affect the delivery of education services
at the municipal level. Using the new institutionalism in political science and local political
leadership as the frameworks in this study in order to understand the leadership dynamics
reveals that there are deviations from the formal institutional prescriptions, or rules-in-form,
when compared to the informal rules, or rules-in-use, in the municipality of Nasugbu.
Based on the seven working rules identified, enumerated, and narrated in this study, the
municipal mayor was able to shape, create, and/or recreate his position and assumed specific
roles, which are not necessarily provided in the formal rules. However, the presence of infor-
mal rules and the assumption of roles by the municipal mayor are not without fault since
both the informal rules and the roles are not necessarily positive.
The informal rules used in the municipality of Nasugbu were able to shape the roles
assumed by the municipal mayor for the duration of his term as the local chief executive in
general and as co-chair of the local school board in particular. Aside from the formal rules
that ought to govern activities at the local level, the informal rules have proved to be more
dynamic and more “real.” These rules also showed how the municipal mayor has exercised
authority, sometimes beyond the scope of his formal functions. The informal rules have also
shed light on how the local chief executive has been able to use the informal rules in order
to achieve their desired goal. While most of the tasks accomplished by the mayor, the LSB,
and the local government as a whole were mandated by law, primarily by the LGC of 1991,
the realization of these tasks was made possible through the rules-in-use or the informal
arrangements and assertion of roles and authority. Thus, the case of Nasugbu has shown
that, as Ostrom notes, “political institutions that really matter are invisible” (as cited in
Lowndes and Leach 2004, 561).
The interplay between the different rules-in-use clearly shows the roles assumed by the
municipal mayor. Of the four leadership roles Leach and Lowndes (2007) identified, only
three were fully assumed by the mayor of Nasugbu. These are (1) setting the education
agenda and policy direction for the Nasugbu education sector, (2) ensuring good perfor-
mance by realizing the goals and agenda set, and (3) maintaining a decision-making-friendly
environment, particularly within the LSB. These are exhibited through how the municipal
mayor asserted his authority in the LSB and appointed additional members to the board.
Likewise, the number of classrooms built and the achievement test results in Nasugbu show
how the interventions by the local government, through the rules-in-use, were able to affect

the quality of education in the municipality. The fourth role, which is using external networks,
was not fully assumed by the mayor. While there were established political linkages, these
were not extensively utilized by the municipal mayor to the advantage of the
municipality.
Certainly, there are areas not covered by this study. For one, the framework chosen already
sets the limit of this research, i.e. the focus on informal rules and leadership roles. While the
politics of informality may provide important insights, there are also other aspects that it
might have failed to respond to or look at, such as local citizen involvement and participation,
and the problem of education quality. For future research, comparing the experience of
Nasugbu with other similarly or differently situated municipalities could provide a more
nuanced understanding not only of rules-in-use but also local political leadership in the
context of education politics. It would also be interesting to look at other possible assumed
roles of the local chief executive in education politics outside those already identified. Lastly,
using other frameworks and research methods in understanding local leadership in educa-
tion politics can also enrich the discourse, provide different perspectives, and address the
limitations of the new institutional framework in understanding the roles of municipal may-
ors as local chief executives.
Notes
1. Section 22. Corporate Powers. (a) Every local government unit, as a corporation, shall have the
following powers: (1) To have continuous succession in its corporate name; (2) To sue and be
sued; (3) To have and use a corporate seal; (4) To acquire and convey real or personal property;
(5) To enter into contracts; and (6) To exercise such other powers as are granted to corporations,
subject to the limitations provided in this Code and other laws. (b) Local government units
may continue using, modify, or change their existing corporate seals: Provided, That newly
established local government units or those without corporate seals may create their own
corporate seals which shall be registered with the Department of the Interior and Local
Government: Provided, further, That any change of corporate seal shall also be registered as
provided hereon. (c) Unless otherwise provided in this Code, no contract may be entered into
by the local chief executive in behalf of the local government unit without prior authorization
by the sanggunian concerned. A legible copy of such contract shall be posted at a conspicuous
place in the provincial capital or the city, municipal or barangay hall. (d) Local government units
shall enjoy full autonomy in the exercise of their proprietary functions and in the limitations
provided in this Code and other applicable laws.
2. Section 18. Power to Generate and Apply Resources. Local government units shall have the power
and authority to establish an organization that shall be responsible for the efficient and effective
implementation of their development plans, program objectives and priorities; to create their
own sources of revenues and to levy taxes, fees, and charges which shall accrue exclusively for
their use and disposition and which shall be retained by them; to have a just share in national
taxes which shall be automatically and directly released to them without need of any further
action; to have an equitable share in the proceeds from the utilization and development of
the national wealth and resources within their respective territorial jurisdictions including
sharing the same with the inhabitants by way of direct benefits; to acquire, develop, lease,
encumber, alienate, or otherwise dispose of real or personal property held by them in their
proprietary capacity and to apply their resources and assets for productive, developmental, or
welfare purposes, in the exercise or furtherance of their governmental or proprietary powers
and functions and thereby ensure their development into self-reliant communities and active
participants in the attainment of national goals.
3. Section 17. Basic Services and Facilities. (a) Local government units shall endeavor to be self-
reliant and shall continue exercising the powers and discharging the duties and functions

132 J. R. R. Go
currently vested upon them. They shall also discharge the functions and responsibilities of
national agencies and offices devolved to them pursuant to this Code. Local government units
shall likewise exercise such other powers and discharge such other functions and responsibilities
as are necessary, appropriate, or incidental to efficient and effective provisions of the basic
services and facilities enumerated herein. (b) Such basic services and facilities include, but are
not limited to, the following: […] (2) For a Municipality: […] (viii) Infrastructure facilities intended
primarily to service the needs of the residents of the municipality and which are funded out of
municipal funds including but not limited to, municipal roads and bridges; school buildings
and other facilities for public elementary and secondary schools; clinics, health centers and
other health facilities necessary to carry out health services; communal irrigation, small water
impounding projects and other similar projects; fish ports; artesian wells, spring development,
rainwater collectors and water supply systems; seawalls, dikes, drainage and sewerage, and
flood control; traffic signals and road signs; and similar facilities. (Emphasis mine.)
4. The former municipal mayor was elected as a member of the Sangguniang Bayan during the
2013 local elections, garnering the top spot.
5. Municipal planning and development coordinator 2013; interview by the author. Tape recording.
Seattle’s Best Coffee, TriNoMa, Quezon City, January; Nasugbu West District Supervisor (NWDS)
2013; interview by the author. Tape recording. Office of the District Supervisor, Nasugbu West
Central School, Nasugbu, Batangas, March.
6. Municipal mayor 2013; interview by the author. Tape recording. Office of the Municipal Mayor.
Municipal Hall, Nasugbu, Batangas, January.
7. Barangays Balaytigue and Looc are on the mountainous side of Nasugbu.
8. Guidance counselor, Looc National High School 2013; interview by the author. Tape recording.
Looc National High School, Nasugbu, Batangas, January; Guidance counselor, Senator Gil Puyat
National High School 2013; interview by the author. Tape recording. Senator Gil Puyat National
High School, Nasugbu, Batangas, January.
9. Municipal mayor, interview.
10. NWDS, interview.
11. This is during the period when there were three school districts in Nasugbu.
13. Secondary schools representative to the LSB 2013; interview by the author. Tape recording.
Office of the Principal, Dr Crisogono B. Ermita, Sr. Memorial National High School, Nasugbu,
Batangas, January and March.
14. Former municipal councilor and chair of Sangguniang Bayan committee on education 2013;
interview by author. Tape recording. Sanchez Residence, Nasugbu, Batangas, January.
15. Municipal administrator 2013; interview by the author. Tape recording. Tourism and Industry
Services Office, Municipal Hall, Nasugbu, Batangas, January.
17. Municipal planning and development coordinator, interview; NWDS, interview.
18. Municipal budget officer 2013; interview by the author. Tape recording. Municipal Budget
Office, Municipal Hall, Nasugbu, Batangas, January.
19. Senator Ralph G. Recto is the husband of Batangas Governor Vilma Santos-Recto.
20. Rosario Apacible was mayor from 1986 to 1998. Raymund Apacible, Rosario’s son, was mayor
from 1998 to 2004. In 2013, Rosario Apacible won again as mayor of Nasugbu after the third
term of the mayor who is the subject of this study ended.
21. MPDC, interview; NWDS, interview.
22. MPDC, interview; NWDS, interview.
23. Municipal budget officer, interview; Municipal engineer 2013; interview by the author. Tape
recording. Office of the Mayor, Municipal Hall, Nasugbu, Batangas, January.
Acknowledgments
The author acknowledges the Office of the Chancellor of the University of the Philippines Diliman,
through the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Development, for funding support through

the Thesis and Dissertation Grants. The author also acknowledges the members of his Master’s thesis
defense panel, Dr Maria Ela L. Atienza (adviser), Dr Alex B. Brillantes Jr (critic), Dr Jorge V. Tigno, and
Dr Maria Teresa Melgar; the key informants and education officials of Nasugbu, Batangas; Dr Jean S.
Encinas-Franco for her helpful insights and comments; and the two anonymous reviewers. All short-
comings are the author’s sole responsibility.
Notes on contributor
Jan Robert R. Go is Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of the
Philippines Diliman. He obtained his Master of Arts (Political Science) degree from the University of the
Philippines Diliman in 2013. His areas of interest include decentralization and local politics, politics of
local education governance, and new institutionalism in political science. Part of this study was taken
from his Master’s thesis.
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Philippine Political Science Journal, 2016

VOL. 37, NO. 2, 111–134

Political leadership and education politics: the mayor and

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

CONTACT Jan Robert R. Go jrgo1@up.edu.ph

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Frameworks and research method

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Table 1. The working rules.

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(1)  the municipal mayor, who is the main subject of the study,

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Profile of Nasugbu, Batangas

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Decentralization of education in the Philippines: the rules-in-form

The municipal mayor

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Local School Board

(1)  the municipal mayor,

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(1)  Construction, repair, and maintenance of school buildings and other facilities of

Special Education Fund

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Political leadership: the rules-in-use

The rules-in-use in Nasugbu’s education service sector

Entry and exit rules

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Roles of the municipal mayor

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Table 3. Classrooms built by the municipal government.

Table 5. Average NAT rating for secondary schools in Nasugbu.

On the decision-making environment

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Table 6. Local expenditures for education, first legislative district of Batangas

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(1) the municipal mayor, who is the main subject of the study,

(1) the municipal mayor,

(1) Construction, repair, and maintenance of school buildings and other facilities of