The Center for the Advancement of Local Governance (CALG) of the Department of the Interior and Local Government – National Capital Region (DILG-NCR) and Legal/Bantay-Korapsyon (BK), in partnership with the Regional Peace and Order Council – National Capital Region (RPOC-NCR) launched the first episode of “Be In The Know: LegaLokal” on August 31, 2022 via Zoom Teleconference platform.

The CALG and BK created the Be In The Know Series, a public education social media campaign, that is envisioned as a mechanism by which to pursue local governance excellence through knowledge-sharing and innovation.

“Be In The Know: LegaLokal” will serve as an interactive forum aimed at educating and capacitating the local government functionaries, and the whole DILG-NCR organization on various laws, policies, and regulations to promote quality and competent local governance. Being accessible to all audiences, it is also designed to invite participation from the public at large.

The first episode of the program dealt with the concept of Fact-Finding Inquiry (FFI) which is an essential part of the process of handling complaints submitted to DILG-NCR.

LGOO VI/Chief of Staff Abigayle C. Baligod explained that FFI plays a significant role in providing efficient and effective public service to the clients of DILG-NCR. These clients, the Local Government Units (LGUs) and the general public, are better served and guided when the FFIs are conducted in a comprehensive, complete, and comprehensible fashion, LGOO VI/CoS Baligod stated.

The resource persons tapped for the first episode, LGOO VI Atty. Franie Rios, LGOO V Benjielyn Yu-Roxas, and LGOO III Majalin Laia Tiu, shared best practices that their respective Field Offices had adopted in handling legal complaints.

Atty. Rios underscored the importance of having an institutionalized system for handling different types of complaints by coming up with a flowchart detailing the steps to be taken for every kind of complaint and being guided by the templates of legal communications corresponding to each.

In turn, LGOO V Yu-Roxas highlighted that: as public servants, we should efficiently deliver technical assistance to our clientele by acting upon the complaints promptly and applying the standard operating procedures established by the Regional and Field Offices.

For her part, LGOO III Tiu emphasized the importance of having a Legal Unit team available in every Field Office in order to properly evaluate and assess every complaint; and having as well, a pool of Operations Officers providing support and suggesting strategies to address the complaints and recommending solutions that are within the bounds of the authority and mandate given to DILG-NCR as a supervising body of the LGUs.

As CALG is gearing up to become a more technologically enabled, accessible, and sustainable repository of knowledge and expertise in the DILG-NCR, it sees “Be In The Know: LegaLokal” as a continuing source of legal knowledge and information about local governance that is available to all.

“Sa pamamagitan ng programang ito, tayo ay magiging tulay upang maging maalam ang taong-bayan na siyang mas lalong magpapaunlad sa mga lokal na pamahalaan ng ating Rehiyon”, DILG-NCR Regional Director Maria Lourdes L. Agustin, CESO III stated.

Accordingly, the succeeding episodes of “Be in the Know: LegaLokal” will be streamed through the official social media account of DILG-NCR, and thus bring the law closer to the Filipino people.