Senate Majority Leader Francis ‘TOL’ Tolentino believes that many of the persistent problems faced by Filipinos daily, including garbage, traffic, and water, can be solved by synchronizing local ordinances.

“I have always believed that several national concerns can be addressed locally, through local resolutions and policies,” Tolentino said in separate speeches before the Philippine Councilors League of Romblon province, and the assembly of the Vice Mayors League of Metro Manila on Thursday night.

“A good ordinance passed by the legislative council of a city or municipality could resolve a local issue. But if we could synchronize the ordinances of several local councils, then we can find faster solutions to problems on a regional, or even national scale,” the senator asserted.

Under the Local Government Code, the vice mayor and councilors of a city or municipality make up the local legislative council that passes local laws, known as ordinances.

“When I chaired the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA), one of my biggest frustrations was putting together all the local legislative councils to form a Metro Manila Regional Legislative Assembly,” said Tolentino, who chaired the MMDA from 2010-2015.

He recalled that while many local government units had their own ordinances for problems that are commonly experienced across Metro Manila, the challenge for the MMDA was how to make the legislative councils agree to work together to resolve issues with a regional perspective.

“That was my dream then, to have a regional legislative assembly for Metro Manila. This could also be replicated in other parts of the country. There is nothing in the Local Government Code that prohibits it,” he stressed.

Such assemblies, he added, can also help implement unfunded national laws, and those that may be difficult to apply in certain LGUs due to their distinct conditions.

A believer in local governance, Tolentino was a former three-term mayor who helped transform Tagaytay into a progressive model city. He also once headed the League of Cities of the Philippines.