Trust in the Leader of Collaborative Process Design and Facilitation
LGU Officers: Your role in SE-GRM
You are the most trusted local institution in any RE project area. You are the first point of contact for community concerns, the first face constituents turn to when they see something they don't understand. This page tells you what you need to do, when, and with which tools.
You are not just a permit-issuing body. Under RA 7160, you have a legal mandate to be consulted before any project affecting your community proceeds. But your role goes beyond compliance. You hear things before the developer does. You are in the barangay hall when constituents come in with questions they will not bring to a ComRel officer. You are at the market, the church, the water source. The concerns that never reach the formal grievance register often pass through you first. This page helps you turn that position into meaningful oversight, not just for the project, but for the people the project is affecting.
PRE-DEVELOPMENT:
Legal basis: RA 7160 Sections 26 and 27 require LGU consultation before any project that may cause material change in the community may proceed. No project may bypass this. An endorsement issued before genuine consultation is legally fragile and reputationally damaging to both the LGU and the project.
When a RE contract is awarded nearby — do not wait for the developer to brief you
When DOE announces a contract award in or near your barangay, trigger your own community information campaign. What is known, what is not yet decided, where to go with questions. You are the most trusted channel for this. Do not delegate it to the project.
Seek a stakeholder map that includes non-landowners, fisherfolk, and informal users
Before the first consultation, require the developer to show you who they have mapped. If tenant farmers, farm workers, fisherfolk, or non-landowner households are not on the list, require them to be added before any endorsement is considered. These are your constituents. They do not stop being affected because they are not on a land title.
Barangay Captain supports the safe space for the whole community to be heard
If you are the Barangay Captain, you are one stakeholder. Genuine consultation means creating independent space for quiet groups (back-row fisherfolk, women without land titles, skeptical elders) to speak without the filtering presence of their elected official. Require the developer to conduct separate sessions with groups who are unlikely to speak in a full assembly.
T-17 Inclusive Engagement Design P-09 Contractor Onboarding Protocol
Do not issue endorsements before genuine community consultation is documented
Require documented evidence (attendance records, consultation minutes, records of concerns raised and how they were addressed) before any Barangay Resolution or endorsement is issued. An endorsement obtained before community consultation has been conducted is a legal and reputational liability.
T-19 Consent Quality Assessment P-06 Pre-Engagement Entry Protocol
CONSTRUCTION:
At construction stage, your primary role shifts from oversight to relay. You are the first person constituents come to when they see equipment they were not told about, when a contractor behaves improperly, when a crop is damaged, when a road is blocked. What you do with what you hear determines whether concerns enter the system or stay in community conversation.
Verify that communities are notified before site activities begin... not after
Equipment should not arrive before an explanation. When you observe or hear about project activity that communities have not been briefed on, raise it with the developer immediately. Work preceding communication is the most common and most damaging alignment failure in RE construction phases.
T-10 Activity-Communication Alignment Tracker P-03 Pre-Activity Notification Protocol P-06 Pre-Engagement Entry Protocol
Treat what constituents tell you as GRM input... not just conversation
A concern raised to you informally is a concern that has not yet entered the formal system. When constituents bring you something about the project, ask: has this been logged? If not, relay it to the developer with the expectation that it will be formally entered, tracked, and responded to. It is within your responsibility to ensure the concern goes somewhere.
T-20 Grievance Register P-02 Informal Feedback Documentation P-20 Information Disclosure Protocol
Make it a habit to discuss monthly signal reports from the developer's ComRel officer
Silence in the formal GRM is not evidence of no concerns. Ask the ComRel officer monthly: what signals are you hearing? What concerns have been logged? What is still open? If the answer is consistently "nothing" during active construction (when dust, noise, access changes, and employment dynamics are all present) that is itself a signal worth investigating.
T-06 Signal Tracker T-07 Silence & Passive Consent Checklist P-01 Early Signal Capture
Watch for benefit masking. Be sensitive to quiet periods during employment programs
When the project is providing local employment or CSR programs, grievance numbers typically drop. This is not always evidence of satisfaction. Community members have told researchers that they suppress concerns while they are employed because speaking up feels risky. A quiet benefit period deserves closer listening, not less of it.
T-09 Benefit-Masking Monitor P-11 Benefit Transparency Protocol P-19 Benefit Risk Management
OPERATIONS:
At construction stage, your primary role shifts from oversight to relay. You are the first person constituents come to when they see equipment they were not told about, when a contractor behaves badly, when a crop is damaged, when a road is blocked. What you do with what you hear determines whether concerns enter the system or stay in community conversation.
Watch for the construction-to-operations transition. Communities often experience it as abandonment
When construction ends and the project transitions to operations, the ComRel team that communities knew is typically replaced by leaner operations staff with no relationship history. Ask the developer: who is the community's new contact? Have they been introduced in person? What happens to concerns raised during the transition? If you cannot get a clear answer, that is the gap your constituents will feel first.
P-17 Continuity & Turnover Protocol T-36 Phase Transition Review
Establish a standing Barangay Grievance Desk as a basic service
Every barangay with a RE project in its area should have a designated grievance focal person who knows the GRM intake process. This does not require additional staff, it requires training and a clear protocol for what to do when a constituent brings a concern about the project to the barangay hall. You are the community's most accessible institutional entry point.
T-21 GRM System Builder P-10 Feedback Closure Protocol P-12 Grievance Response Alignment
Plan for end-of-term. Do not let the community face project closure without preparation
RE contracts run 25 years. Municipalities with projects nearing the end of their term need transition plans covering employment, land-use reversion, local revenue impacts, and benefit continuity, developed with the community, not delivered to it. This planning should begin years before the contract ends, not when it does.
If you have a financial or political relationship with the project, declare it
Employment of family members, benefit-sharing arrangements, political support from project operators, these create conflicts of interest that affect your ability to represent your constituents independently. Declaring them is not weakness. It is the condition under which your other decisions on the project remain credible.
FOR ALL STAGES:
Joint Stakeholder Reflection Tool
Instructions: Each stakeholder group (Developer, LGU, Community Representatives) scores the statements independently from 1–4.
1 = Strongly Disagree 2 = Disagree 3 = Agree 4 = Strongly Agree
The purpose is not to obtain high scores. The purpose is to identify differences in perception.
Discussion Questions:
Where are our scores most different?
What explains these differences?
What concerns may not yet be visible in formal channels?
What one action can we take together in the next 30 days?
What support is needed from each stakeholder group?
This website shared to the public for free courtesy of the
THE CONFLICT RESOLUTION GROUP FOUNDATION, INC.
www.coregroup.org.ph * info@coregroup.org.ph
through our SustainABILITIES Lab Project
© Pixelhaze 2024. A Hostinger Website Builder Template by Pixelhaze Studio
This toolkit is provided for general guidance and informational purposes only. It is not intended as legal, technical, or professional advice. While efforts have been made to ensure accuracy and relevance, users are encouraged to exercise their own judgment and consult appropriate experts when necessary. The developers of this toolkit assume no liability for any decisions or actions taken based on its use.