Relational Governance and Trust Cultures: Preliminary Insights on Tiwala and Pagsunod in Pasig City, Philippines

This research note engages political trust debates by foregrounding tiwala (trust) and pagsunod (submission) as relational, moral practices in Philippine urban governance. Drawing on five pilot interviews in Barangay Pinagbuhatan, Pasig City, it argues that trust is not merely an evaluative attitude or rational calculation but a dynamic, culturally mediated moral economy. This perspective challenges dominant Western-centric models that treat trust as a rational, pre-political disposition stabilizing democratic order. Building on an emerging trust cultures framework, the note shows how tiwala and pagsunod reveal trust as continuously contested and reshaped in everyday negotiations of care, legitimacy, and relational presence. These preliminary insights highlight how residents’ moral evaluations of leaders go beyond personalistic charisma to assess governance systems’ responsiveness and moral credibility. They also point to how hybrid governance environments—digital and face-to-face—shape trust cultures in transitional democracies. These reflections guide future comparative work across the Tiwala at Pagsunod (TaP) project’s three-city study.