The Davao Gulf Management Council (DGMC), which is composed of five coastal cities and 18 coastal municipalities surrounding the Davao Gulf in Region XI, is a brain-child of three non-government organizations (NGO), namely: the Save Davao Gulf Foundation, Inc. (SDGFI); International Marinelife Alliance (IMA); and Human Development International (HDI), and two national agencies (NGA): the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) of the Department of Agriculture (DA), and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR). 

To rally behind key stakeholders of the Gulf, most especially the mayors of the coastal municipalities and cities, the three NGOs and two NGAs, organized a summit in August 1999 where they presented a paper on the State of the Davao Gulf based on research findings and sought the cooperation of various stakeholders comprising of local government units (LGU), other NGAs, NGOs, people’s organizations (PO), and academic and research institutions.  During the event, an election of officers was held and the city and municipal mayors who were present were asked to sign a document to signify their support towards the creation of DGMC.

In November 1999, the DGMC called a meeting in Davao City to discuss organizational matters such as finances (i.e. budget, monthly contributions), Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with coastal municipal and city mayors, staffing, among others. 

During the early stages of the DGMC organization, national legislation on coastal and/or fisheries management that had a major influence on the thrusts and mandate of the DGMC as well as its member LGUs were not well entrenched.  For instance, the Local Government Code (R.A. 7160, 1991), which grants coastal LGUs the primary authority, responsibility and accountability in the management their coastal resources, and the Philippine Fisheries Code of 1998 (R.A. 8550), which strengthens important provisions of the Local Government Code, were yet in the formative years of implementation.  Even discussions on the delineation of municipal waters were still gaining ground.  This situation affected the DGMC in the sense that coastal management interventions were not as well-defined.  At the LGU level, CRM initiatives were given undue, limited, fragmented or dispersed attention. For instance, budgets for CRM were limited if not totally absent, implementation of CRM plans were uncoordinated, organizations were operating independently, ordinances were crafted without much consideration on how they relate to existing national laws or ordinances of adjacent LGUs, and law enforcement was weak. 

Through time, trends changed as level of awareness, expertise and experience among the various actors and stakeholders in the Davao Gulf expanded and flourished.  Even the DGMC matured since its inception in 1999.  So far, it has done the following:

• mobilized the coastal municipalities and cities to contribute, by virtue of a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) signed by the LGUs’ chief executives and adopted by their legislative councils, to the finances of the DGMC for its monthly operations;
• mobilized member or partner NGAs and NGOs, by virtue of a MOA, to provide technical assistance to the DGMC and its member LGUs through their membership in the DGMC Technical Working Group (TWG);
• caused the creation of an important mover in the Gulf, which is the Davao Gulf Environment Protection Alliance (DGEPA) that is mandated to initiate prevention, apprehension and prosecution activities towards the sustainable management of coastal and marine resources of the Davao Gulf;
• generated the participation of various stakeholders in the formulation of the Davao Gulf Management Framework Plan during the Davao Gulf Environment summit last September 2004;
• implemented projects coordination with partners.

As efforts and initiatives in the Davao Gulf intensify especially with the drafting of the Davao Gulf Management Framework Plan, there is a need to rationalize the organizational set-up of the Davao Gulf Management Council (DGMC) to make it more responsive, effective and at par with the natural and human resource, institutional, logistical, financial and technical requirements in the Davao Gulf.

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