Mayor tells barangay officials to make his pet project their priority or else...

In a recent orientation training of newly-elected barangay officials of General Santos City, Mayor Ronnel Rivera stressed to the participants to make his program their priority.

He said that for their projects to be supported, “they must align them with the Clean GenSan program” of his administration.

His message, according to a recent news report from SunStar Davao, was delivered last February 7 in his lecture during the orientation conducted by the DILG in Koronadal, South Cotabato.

He stressed that the city government cannot just fund any of the barangay projects that were not included in his administration’s program.

It just makes one wonder what barangay projects is he referring to considering that each of the 26 barangays of this tuna-rich city are supposed to be planning and budgeting for their own projects.

 They should have been empowered a long time ago to plan and fund their own projects in their respective barangays after the enactment of the Local Government Code of 1991.

Does it mean that this is not happening in General Santos, a progressive city of over half a million inhabitants 151 kms. southwest of Davao City? 

 Consider this.  In 2012, the barangays in the city receieved more than P787 million pesos as their Internal Revenue Allocation, or their share of the taxes collected by the national government.  This is according to the DILG.  This means that on the average, each of the barangays in the city received P30 million as their share.  This does not include yet their collection from local taxes like real estate property tax, business tax, fees and other income.

When spent prudently, these amounts should go a long way in providing the needed projects to sustain each of these barangays’ budgets for basic services like health, education as well as social and economic services that include job creation for their residents.


When empowered to manage their affairs as provided by law, every barangay should be self-sufficient.

The law is very clear on this.  “As the basic political unit, the barangay serves as the primary planning and implementing unit of government policies, plans, programs, projects, and activities in the community…”.  This is according to Section 384 of the Local Government Code.

Furthermore, Section 391 of the same code has many provisions that empowers the barangay to raise funds for all of its needs.  Whatever the municipal or provincial government provide should be merely supplemental.

In other words, instead of a mayor telling the barangays what to do, it’s supposed to be the other way around.  The barangay leadership should be the one telling what needs to be done in their localities including where to source and how to spend its funds. 

The job of the city or the municipal mayor is just to support each of the barangays in his jurisdiction and provide the means and level playing field to ensure that they’re empowered to stand on their own feet.

Most of us know that this is called the bottoms-up or grassroots approach in development planning.

As a former entrepreneur, Mayor Rivera should know the wisdom behind this concept, which is also being used as one of the standard planning tools in the corporate sector.

Even international development think tanks and funding institutions like the World Bank have long advocated the grassroots approach as an effective means to empower communities. 

Come to think of it, a well-developed country is merely a collection of well-developed villages or barangays.  What do you think Japan or South Korea are made of?

For sure, there is wisdom in his ideas when he said “as new leaders, we must be resourceful in implementing our projects that are both efficient and that would also benefit our constituents".  Maybe he really believed in the strength to be derived from “the synergy between the barangay officials and the local government of General Santos City…”.

There is no debate on that.  The barangay officials are supposed to know and should be doing those as leaders in their villages.  

What seem to be lacking are indications that his administration is committed to the idea of encouraging the empowerment of those who are at the bottom rung of leadership.  

When he commits himself to this, his job in the overall administration of the city would be much easier. Those barangays become self-sustaining units that can stand on their own and should deliver results for themselves and for the city as a whole.  

This way he can pay more attention to the bigger picture like “the institutionalization of Public-Private Partnership (PPP) in the city where private investors will join government ventures and initiatives” in line with the strategic initiatives of the national government.

We just hope though that the barangay leaders were not merely paying lip service to Mayor Rivera’s CleanGenSan program when, according to SunStar Davao, it “received approval and salutations from the newly elected barangay officials”. Hmm.

What about your barangay? Are your leaders doing what they're supposed to do to make your barangay a self-sustaining barangay?  

Why not tell us something about it.