by voters in plebiscites held in 1989, 2001 and 2019. Voters in the Cordilleras rejected autonomy in 1990 and 1998; hence the Cordillera Administrative Region remains as a regular administrative region with no delegated powers or responsibilities. The sole autonomous region at present, the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, comprises local government units that have consented by plebiscite to be placed under the authority of the Bangsamoro Regional Government. An autonomous region, while possessing a government, is not a local government unit (LGU) per se, as the autonomous regional government's organization and structure is not defined by the Local Government Code of 1991, unlike provinces, cities, municipalities and barangays. Rather, an autonomous region is a group of LGUs to which Congress has provided via statute a very specific form of regional governance structure, along with certain powers and responsibilities. Local government units In the Local Government Code of 1991, a local government unit (LGU) can take the form of a province, a city, a municipality, or a barangay. All LGUs have local legislatures (Sanggunian) and local chief executives (governor, mayor, or barangay captain) that are elected by popular vote. Per the Local Government Code of 1991, section 25, the President of the Philippines exercises direct supervisory authority over provinces and independent cities (i.e., highly urbanized and independent component cities); thus, LGUs that belong to these categories form the primary level of LGUs in the Philippines. Pateros, by virtue of not belonging to any province, effectively also constitutes a primary level LGU. Provinces A province is composed of component cities and municipalities, over which it exercises supervisory authority. Each province is headed by a governor. Its legislative body is the Sangguniang Panlalawigan. Cities and municipalities Three different legal classes of cities exist in the Philippines. Independent cities, of which there are currently 38 – classified either as highly urbanized (33) or independent component (5) cities – are cities which are not under the jurisdiction of any province. Thus, these cities are autonomously governed, do not share their tax revenues with any province, and in most cases, their residents are not eligible to elect or be elected to provincial offices. Cities that are under the political jurisdiction of a province form the third legal class of cities, called component cities. The voters in these cities are allowed to vote and run for positions in the provincial government. Municipalities are always under