@article{oai:nagoya.repo.nii.ac.jp:00007136, author = {GERA, Weena J.S.}, journal = {国際開発研究フォーラム, Forum of International Development Studies}, month = {Aug}, note = {Across the broad issues of decentralized governance in the Philippines, the process of fiscal decentralization continues to require thoroughgoing analysis vis-à-vis the incessant protests against purportedly unfair distribution and use of the country’s fiscal resources. This paper analyzes the institutional framework defining the country’s intergovernmental fiscal relations that would highlight the critical role of central-local political structures in shaping fiscal decentralization. It examines how the policy standardization, resource coordination and allocation, and monitoring and evaluation in the country’s intergovernmental finance affect the distribution, generation and use of fiscal resources. Key issues noted include : 1) limited devolution of budget; 2) constrained intergovernmental fiscal transfer system (insufficient and unlawful allocation of funds; lack of transparency and exercise of discretionary powers in the use of fiscal resources); and 3) low levels of local revenue generation. These issues intersect along a contradiction of powers between the local and central government politicians which predominates in an intergovernmental fiscal structure evaluated in this study as lacking in meaningful institutionalization. The basic paradigm of this paper is based on the assumption that decentralization as a political process can best be operated within the framework of centrally-led institutionalization.}, pages = {129--152}, title = {Unregulated Central-Local Structures of Power : The Politics of Fiscal Decentralization in the Philippines}, volume = {35}, year = {2007} }