“My three years as SK chairman is a learning experience not only in the institution that I had served but also to the mother institution that supervises the Sangguniang Kabataan -the Barangay. Let me share some of my observations and point of views that prevails not only in our barangay but in most places in the Philippines”.
With proper governance the Philippine would develop - this is incontestably the formula that an expert on government would suggest. The national government is always been in the eye reform groups. This is for the reason that the gravity of the fund and the power that they are all possessing is indubitably humongous. Notwithstanding to the inclination that national government is the lead agent in developing the country, we should also take a closer look to the smallest and oldest unit of political subdivision in the country.
Subsequent to the 1987 Constitution ratification and the passage of the 1991 Local Government Code of the Philippines (RA 7160), the barangay as the smallest tier of political subdivision was created. This gave them the funds, the power, specific jurisdictions and territory. It is also considered as unique system of governance because of its composition and territory adding to that is the power to enforce its laws and policies.
The framework of the barangay is the RA 7160 which evidently stated its functions and limitations as political subdivision in the Philippines. Truly this is a unique and innovative idea, but rooms for improvement and reformation should take in to account for the barangay be a successful smallest unit of government. Exactly 20 years after the institutionalization of it, Barangay is one of the foundations of governance in the Philippines. But like other government offices in the Philippines it is not off the hook to corruption and flawed governance.
Everyday barangay is busy giving certificates and clearances to individual and businesses. It was provided in the RA 7160 that City Government cannot render any business permit if not properly cleared and certified by the barangay which has a jurisdiction over it. This is the normal life in a barangay and this has been the day to day business of it. Definitely, this is not the only function of the barangay. As the smallest unit of government, it is mandated to craft a sound development outline that would cater to the need and goal of the citizen that particular barangay.
This is called development plan. This is a blueprint that will guide the City/ Municipal, Provincial and the National level, to a bottom-up planning system. Planned in the grassroots level aggregated and execute in the national level however, prioritizing the main concern. But this is not undertaking the way it should be, most barangay are not practicing the development planning process, for the most part on the constitution of development council. For the reason that it would slower the process of releasing the funds of the barangay not knowing that proper consultation to public particularly the civil society organization, would make a sound development plan not for the temporary time but in the long-run. Truly development planning is a slow process especially on the prioritizing projects. The debate and consultation make the process much slower that made other barangay chairmen bypassed this process.
The BDC or barangay development council is annually given of a 20 percent barangay Internal Revenue Allotment share (IRA) to be used and budgeted in different priority projects that would be advantageous to its citizenry. But because of the failure of some barangay to create a BDC the funds are not properly maximize and efficiently appropriated to the priority projects because, proper consultation and weighing up was not able to run through. As we all know participative governance, particularly in the barangay level, is highly recommended and push through. This will make the government more transparent not only on the funds but also in the policy and program formulation.
Another aspect that we should look into is the officials themselves. As a basic principle in governance, the success and failure of a certain office would be the burden of the leader who makes a clear direction of where the team will go.
The foremost duty of a Barangay Councillor is to draft resolutions and ordinance within the vested power of barangay. Though there are trainings and a seminar on how to draft as such it is not prioritized because of reluctance and to do so. This should be the focus of the trainings rendered by the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG). The basic orientation is no longer applicable and looks obsolete especially those barangay with large budget and area. Another thing that DILG should incorporate to their course is the parliamentary process and procedure including resolution and ordinance drafting.
The problem like elsewhere is the kumpare and kumare system and the strong family affiliation. Because the barangay officials are elected in not so big but not so small area where their clans are also residing the tendency that the ordinances and policies that would be unfavourable to his or her clan member or close friends will not be implemented. It also includes the prioritization of the target beneficiary of barangay programs and services those who are related closely will benefit most.
Because of strong personal affiliation, barangay officials should practice the KBL of staying in power (Kasal, Binyag, at Libing). If an official mastered those three usual occasions a greater possibility that an officer will stay in power. This is not healthy for an official in the government and the institution itself for they are confined with those old and common concepts about barangay.
There is a little if not no professional growth that an official would get if he or she seeks for the position. But of course this exclude those barangay with big IRA and huge territory like those barangays in Makati City, 1st District of Caloocan, Quezon City, and those of the in the Metropolitan Area and highly urbanized districts, thus little amount of professionals and governance experts are participating in barangay government. Because of the little partaking of qualified and knowledgeable people about government, innovation and effective service delivery is not properly touch.
The DILG is the lead government agency that is mandated to see and advise the barangay to their activity and legal concerns and shall take the necessary move to alleviate the governance of the barangay. The traditional basic orientation courses should be a raise into much deeper focus like fiscal management, policy formulation and implementation, and development planning. This thing goes in a two way process, persistence and susceptibility to improvement is highly advice for the barangay officials. More than anything else strong political will and propensity to changes should be integrated by the side of trainings and structural reformations.
In order for us to fully develop this nation we should see that all government tiers are functioning the way they were mandated by the law and norms of the general public. An additional thing is that we ought to be more participative and decisive about the changes that we are having.
Barangay is the oldest government unit of our civilization, it was first established during the Malay occupation and it was headed by Sultans. Being the oldest political institution we should preserve and constantly develop this institution. The point is we should focus not only on the big things that we easily seen, sometimes the story is created in the small pieces of tales and most of the interesting stories are not those big one but those who directly affecting us this embraces the barangay. To end this, the least we focus to the small thing that we see, the greater the possibility that the nation would not develop or at least growth will not be properly distributed.
These are my observations in the last three years of my stay as member of the council. My intention is not to malign the institution that I served but for us to know that we are all stakeholder; people need not to be nerveless to the issues that affecting us.
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