Policies and Institutional Arrangements

The policies that govern the management of the lakes were divided into eight types (Republic Act, Presidential Decree, Executive Order, Administrative Order, Board Resolution, Memorandum Circular, Kautusan, and City Ordinance); three categories (planning, monitoring, and evaluation); and two levels (national and local). To provide a brief description of the differences between the types of policies used in this study, according to the Official Gazette, a Republic Act is based on the Constitution. It can only be proposed, passed, repealed by Congress, and approved by the President. On the other hand, presidential decrees and executive orders are issued exclusively by the President. The head of departments, such as the head of DENR or the president as administrative head, can issue administrative orders. Meanwhile, MCs, BRs, and Kautusan, are issued by the departments, specifically LLDA and DILG. Lastly, city ordinances are issued by the municipal government of a city regarding specific topics such as solid waste management.

For this study, policies were grouped as Monitoring if there are specific rules and regulations such as RA 4850, RA 8550, and San Pablo City Ordinance 2003-15; in contrast with policies grouped as Planning, which usually include plans and proposed rules, such as RA 7160 and LLDA BR 70. Further, Republic Acts indirectly related to the management of the lakes, such as PD 856 and EO 111,  were also tagged for Planning. Based on the data collected by this study, no policies were used for evaluation. Lastly, the policies were also divided into national and local levels, simply defining the origin of such legislation.