This paper examines the impact of implementing democratic school leadership via advisory school councils in Philippine public secondary schools. Through an experiment with empirical surveys and interviews, this study reveals that the experimental group had higher levels of commitment, empowerment and trust compared with the control group after one year of implementing democratic school leadership. However, the one-year experiment did not yield a significant impact on the students' academic achievement levels. The experimental group perceived the advisory school councils operation in their schools as effective. Factors that either elicit or inhibit active participation from the stakeholders in collaborative decision making have been identified. The study suggests that the Philippines should expedite the process of establishing school councils in the public schools as an approach for creating better schools. (Contains 3 figures.)