How computer-literate are our barangays today?

Visiting Valenzuela City’s website the other day, I came across an almost one year old report about a training wokshop on information technology conducted by Google and DILG for the city’s 33 barangays.

  

According to the report, “armed with their personal laptops”, representatives from its various barangays attended the workshop “to test the application of the operation system” behind Google’s Cloud computing system.

 The site explained “Google Cloud is an online platform consisting of network sharing and actual processing of data within the integrated connections of computers through internet. Aside from this, data can also be stored…once information is uploaded within the system, everyone can access them online.”

It added “the framework allows barangays to upload and view files, thereby decreasing the usage of records on papers.  This is the first step towards having a paperless office. Some documents, when allowed by the user, can also be viewed and accessed by the public, like the financial statement”.

“The project aims to promote transparency,” Local Government Operations Officer Alice Evangelista said.

There is no doubt that many barangays in the country, particularly those in urban centers like Valenzuela City, have migrated from the ancient system of processing their documentary requirements with typewriters to the more faster and accurate table top and lap top computers.

However, there is still a long way to go before the majority of barangays can catch up with the rest of other sectors such as large government agencies and commercial establishments in making computers the standard office tools in processing and storing their documents. 

Times have changed, and it’s quite disappointing to see many of our barangays still in the “dark ages” when it comes to catching up with modern technology – to think that billions of pesos are allocated to them every year in the form of the Internal Revenue Allotment.

 They have to catch up.  Otherwise we their constituents - the main reason why they exist - will be the ones to be groping in the dark.

Watch for the results of our studies on the state of computerization of barangays in many parts of the country. BR

 

Barangay chairs train as 'information partners'

The barangay chairs of the 54 barangays of Tanauan, Leyte underwent a Citizens Journalism Seminar Workshop to enable them to “communicate the important happenings in their respective areas especially in times of disasters and emergencies”.

Sponsored by the government’s Philippine Information Agency or PIA in Region 8 in partnership with the Local Government of Tanauan and headed by Mayor Pelagio Tecson, the workshop was scheduled last  February 21 from 8:00 o’clock in the morning to 4:00 o’clock in the afternoon at the Conference Hall of the Sangguniang Bayan.

PIA says “this is in line with its thrust of strengthening the Community Development Information Officers by including the barangays.

The participants were taught on what to report, how to make news and send them as SMS, how to send photos and video clips.

After completing the training, the participants are to be designated by the PIA as the Barangay Community Development Information Officer in their respective barangay.

According to the PIA Director of Region 8 Olive P. Tiu, ‘the importance of communication and information has never been more apparent than after the Yolanda”.

A focus group discussion conducted by PIA and UN OCHA two weeks after the ‘Yolanda’ disaster “revealed that access to information was the number one need of those people in the evacuation centers”.

Director Tiu commended the local government unit of Tanauan for being the first town in Eastern Visayas to have 100% participation among its 54 barangays.

After this worksop, the PIA in Eastern Visayas is planning to train all the other barangays in the region in citizen journalism.

This joint effort of two of the government’s agencies in the area is commendable.  However, the question that comes to mind is, why only now? 

The flow of communication is important in any government operation especially at the barangay level and the local government should have already a system in place a long time ago.

Why wait for a cataclysmic event such as the ‘Yolanda’ to happen before they’ll think of having such a system in operation.

Anyway, this initiative should also be cascaded down to the level of citizens where it is needed most not only in times of disasters but in their daily lives.  It would serve barangay officials well if they can also put into operation a network of citizens journalists below them who will report to the goings-on in the barangay.

In many instances, barangay leaders are the last ones to know.  There should be a citizen-initiated system of reporting and monitoring what's going on in the barangay and the official responsible must be on top of this.

This is also an effective way of preventing crime in their jurisdictions because those who violate the law or the presence of suspicious looking people in a community are immediately reported.
 

Care must be taken though in keeping the identities of those who make the reports secret for their own safety and security. BR

 

P100,000 retirement pay for barangay officials?

A representative from Negros Oriental, Rep. Mercedes K. Alvares of the National People’s Coalition, recently filed House Bill 3763 granting P100,000 retirement pay for barangay officials.

In filing the bill, Alvarez stressed that “the provision of additional benefit would serve as a recognition of the vital contribution to the realm of public service that are being extended by both elected and appointed barangay officials”.

“The officials and employees of the barangays are the frontliners in public service and are also the first responders to any situation in their respective barangays,” Alvarez said.

Barangay officials currently get honoraria or allowances for their services.

HB 3763 is among the many bills filed by lawmakers in connection with their desire to raise the earnings of barangay officials.

The proposed measure provides that all barangay officials shall be entitled to a lump sum retirement pay equivalent to a one-year honorarium but in no case shall exceed P100,000 to be taken from the barangay retirement fund.

For a barangay employee or official to receive such benefit, he or she must be at least 60 years old with minimum of nine years of service at the time of retirement.

Under the bill, the term retiree includes barangay officials such as barangay tanods, members of the Lupon Tagapamayapa, barangay health workers and barangay day care workers.

HB 3763 also calls for the creation of the Barangay Retirement Fund (BRF), which shall be used to fund the retirement of barangay officials mentioned in this Act.

The amount equivalent to one percent of the share of the national government under Section 284 of the Local Government Code of 1991, as amended, shall be used for this purpose.

Alvarez said that it should be the responsibility of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) to administer and ensure the appropriate disbursement of the fund.

The filing of this bill is a step in the right direction.  Considering the thousand-and-one concerns a barangay official  have to face daily including risks to his life, he needs to be well-compensated and his financial needs taken care of.

The issue of pay could be one of the reasons why many barangays could not attract better educated and professional individuals to join the barangay workforce.

If we are to base our assumption on a recent Comelec report by Commissioner Grace Padaca, most of our barangays are led by people with very low educational attainments.  The report revealed that only 30% of barangay chairmen finished high school and 10% elementary.  

Are these numbers telling us that we are being led, at an important level of government, by people with low education, or to put it more bluntly, by illiterates?

There are exceptions of course, but it appears that they are in the minority.

Maybe this is the reason why some, and if not most, of those highly educated people in the  middle and upper economic classes have low respect for barangay officials.

This should not be the case.  It has to change. BR