| Abstract | One of the important issues in regional planning and development in the Philippines is local government support for regional policies and
programmes. This thesis analyses this issue in the light of the attitudes and opinions of local government officials towards regional planning in
region IV-A or southern Luzon region, one of the thirteen regions comprising the Republic of the Philippines. Four dimensions of the subject are
examined - the local government officials' general idea and awareness of regional planning, their involvement and interest in regional planning activities, their attitudes and opinions towards the Regional Development
Council, and their perception of technical assistance needs .
It was found out that, in general, although the local government
official s are not totally oblivious of regional planning, their awareness and knowledge of it is limited. Although their involvement with regional
planning is presently superficial their interest in the subject and in being more involved in regional planning activities is very great . Correlational analyses between the first three dimensions, of the four
mentioned earlier, and nine selected socio- economic variables - the local officials' age, educational level, place of birth, regular monthly income,
length of residence in the community, number of years in present position, other sources of income, number of memberships in development-oriented organizations, and number of seminars attended on planning and development -
were made and it was found out that generally significant relationships exist between general idea and awareness and involvement and interest, on
the one hand, and most of the nine variables, on the other.
Variations in responses between local officials in the more developed and the less developed areas of the region, and also among these in the
different levels of local government were analyzed, and it was found out that in general, the officials in the more developed areas and in the higher levels have more favorable responses towards regional planning. |