123 Local Governments, Civil Society, Democratization, and Development departs from the view that pursuing reforms is like cooking the Filipino rice cake (bibingka), which requires an even or calibrated amount of heat from the top and the bottom.9 Mobilizing a broader constituency requires CSOs to reect on the reasons for the unwillingness of the public, in general, to engage in politics beyond participation in elections, or to associate themselves with social organizations rather than political organizations (as the initial draft from the Philippine Civil Society Index reects). In a series of surveys that asked the public as to what action they will take relative to widely known (i.e., the 'Hello Garci' scandal of 2005 and the alleged ZTE Broadband pay-offs) or anticipated controversies (i.e., if the 2010 elections are not clean and credible), the electorate, while still supportive of protests, are less inclined to join such protests. The public opinion data in Table 4,10 somehow supports the assertion that Filipinos are now suffering from 'people power fatigue' with the proportion of people expressing willingness to join protests declining from 2005 to 2010. It should be noted, however, that despite the decline, the proportion of people who would engage in protest, at 9%, still totals to close to ve million based on the estimated number of Filipinos above 18 years old. Table 4. On public support for collective action. Pulse Asia Inc. Various Surveys. Figures in % October 2005 Feb-March 2008 April 2010 Will support and join protests 22 15 9 Will support but not join protests 36 49 57 Will not support nor join protests 41 36 34 Ac on to be taken LOCAL GOVERNMENTS UNDER DECENTRALIZATION If civil society is seen as a necessary condition to facilitate the completion of the democratic transition, decentralization was seen as a magic ingredient11 for democratization as it is expected to result in the following: Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ greater efciency in the delivery of basic services to the public competition among local governments, allowing citizens to “vote with their feet” scal autonomy, freeing local governments from the whimsical disbursement of funds from central government and also empowering them to generate their own resources increased citizens participation due to the reduced scale of government central-local checks and balances, and the resolution of ethnic conicts (Triesman 2007)