Empowering barangays

I have seen some campaigners for candidates running for positions in the barangay elections on Monday but in Metro Manila, the Oct. 28 elections does not have the hoopla of the congressional, senatorial and presidential elections.

But it’s a different matter in the provinces, especially in the barrios, where the environment is much more intimate and emotions are much more intense.

Philippine Star reported that a total of 6,195 barangays or 14.74 percent of the 42,028 barangays nationwide were declared by the Philippine National Police as election watchlist areas .

VERA Files’ Babylyn Kano-Omar reported that the Comelec and local government units recommened that 100 of Tawi-Tawi’s 203 villages be classified as areas of immediate concern for Monday’s elections.

In Bongao, the provincial capital, 16 of 35 barangays have been named areas of concern.

Should the DILG approve the recommendation, polling precincts in these barangays should have between five and seven police or military security on election day.

Tawi-Tawi is not new to heated barangay elections. VERA Files reported that “Failure of elections were declared in certain areas in the past years. In 2007, elections in barangays Lahay-Lahay and Tandubas did not push through after a polling center burned down. In 2010, elections in Putat, South Ubian failed after members of the Board of Election Inspectors left the precincts fearing for their lives.”

VERA Files further reported that last Saturday night, unidentified men threw a grenade at the Tawi-Tawi police station. No one was reported hurt.

Elections on Monday will be manual.

A barangay is the smallest unit of the government but it is also the most important because they- more than 42,000 all over the country- serve as foundation of our political system. The government is only as strong as its foundation.

Under the Local Government Code (Republic Act 7160) barangay elections are supposed to be non-partisan. Candidates should not belong to a political party. But it’s common knowledge that national politicians support certain candidates in preparation for their next election venture when they would tap these local officials for their campaign.

The Center for People Empowerment in Governance, in its analysis, “Reclaiming the Lost Potential of the Barangay” states that , “ In reality, barangay officials are bound to a web of political clans from the president and Congress to local government units (LGUs) such as governors, mayors, and councilors. Barangay elections are critical to national and local elections: In the presidential race, for instance, barangay officials are expected to deliver the vote quotas through vote buying or other fraudulent means and enticements if necessary, orchestrated by campaign machineries run by mayors, governors, and other politicians. Similarly, the candidacy of barangay aspirants is bankrolled by town officials and politicians; payback time is during the next local elections. With the patronage money, positions, perks, and kickbacks in projects involved, barangay elections are highly partisan and hotly-contested.”

CENPEG said that “Envisioned 22 years ago under the Local Government Code, the barangay (village) was to serve as the basic administrative unit in the community – a grassroots governance system tasked with delivering basic health, social, and other government services. The barangay was also planned as a mechanism for participatory economic governance toward eliminating poverty, unemployment, and social inequality.”

CENPEG said the vision has not materialized and paints a dismal picture of the barangays:

“Today, there is hardly any sign of human progress in a typical barangay most especially in the rural areas. There is of course the ubiquitous, hastily-built basketball court in the middle of the road and in the heart of the village the barangay center which also functions as a social hall at night. Then there is what looks like an unfinished bridge and what appears to be a short stretch of road of sub-standard materials.

“The barangay cannot pass for a development model. It remains a vista of mass poverty which is no different from past decades: Up to 60% of the rural population is poor, more than 30% in the urban areas. Claimed GDP growth does not translate to food and jobs among majority of the villagers; income disparity between the rich and poor is widening by the day. What little mobility there is can be seen in people’s out-migration – toward town centers in search of odd jobs and destined to join clusters of informal settlers, or out of the country tucking away meager savings or borrowed money with family members left at home. In 2012, the number of Filipinos leaving the country every day reached 5,000 or up by 2,000 since 2010; a great number of this diaspora came from the rural barangays.”

But CENPEG said “the barangay as an institution is a basic political and economic unit that can promise an all-sided development. The human potential, resources, and opportunities for productivity that will make a country great are in the barangay. If welded together by a grassroots-driven development program, people-based leadership, new development models, and real participatory democracy the barangay – or the community that comprises it – is a powerful engine of growth. “

It would take more than Monday’s election to genuinely empower the barangays.