On behalf of the 81-strong League of Provinces of the Philippines, I welcome you all to be part of our journey to national government through the strengthening of local autonomy and good governance that is transparent, accountable and participative.

We are now at a exciting period of our country’s development, wherein we are given a singular opportunity to build back better, and create more resilient and responsive communities, post COVID-19.

The “New Normal” ushers in a renewed commitment for provinces to take on the lead to localize and orchestrate efforts at ensuring development and ensure that it is people-centric at the core. We want to ensure a paradigm of governance wherein communities and constituencies take an active role in determining local development directions to ensure that it is responsive to its needs and sustainable in the long term.

The pandemic became an opportunity for the country to harness the advances in information technology to best prepare us for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (FIRe). Although there is still much to be done, but we already have taken the initial steps to get there.

Under the dynamic and visionary leadership of our President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., and Vice-President Sara Duterte – who themselves were local leaders who accomplished much for local development, the League of Provinces commits itself to be active partners toward achieving our global commitments on the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.

Although the development challenges ahead of us can sometimes be tough and seemingly insurmountable, but taking on a whole-of-society and a whole-of-nation approach is a way for the Philippines to achieve middle income country status in 2023.

The LPP takes on the challenge of leading and providing direction toward countryside development as a vital partner of the national government in achieving its over-all development goals.

In the next three years, the League commits itself to document and advocate provincial initiatives in line with Pres. Marcos’ development objectives of providing better services to the Filipinos while ensuring optimal and efficient use of resources, especially to ensure food sufficiency and opportunities for economic development for the poor and marginalized.

We renew our commitment to be a strong advocate for strengthening local government autonomy and development by working with the national government and the 19th Congress in the development of policies and programs that will redound to countryside development, while ensuring the integrity of the environment and promoting resilience.