Wednesday, October 12, 2016

Call To Action In The Barangays

By Manny Valdehuesa

Please be patient and read on. Then pass it on to your friends and neighbors and broadcast it through all media. So it will awaken the consciousness of educated people in the 42,000+ barangays of our republic.

Every Filipino lives in the barangay; we are part of the grassroots. But we have been surrendering its affairs to others; we let them dominate it. So it’s not surprising that local politics and economics are controlled by a few only; and most of them are opportunists or traditional politicians (trapos)—people with dubious motives, competence, or dedication to public service. And too many are corrupt. 

They misuse the community’s wealth. They buy the loyalty and support of people who don’t value their vote or who don’t pay taxes. They pamper those who don’t care about good governance as long as they get handouts and other favors. Do we care?

If we care, we would be seen in the barangay hall; we would attend barangay meetings; we would share ideas for local development; we would help identify problems and work out solutions. We would apply our knowledge, our technology, our expertise, even our finances to properly develop our barangay. We would also share ideas on how to expand its economy, how to fight local poverty, how to create jobs, how to provide livelihood for those in need.

If we care, we would see to it that the barangay’s revenues and budgets will yield maximum benefits for everyone. But do we really care?

For example, yesterday, Oct. 9, your Barangay Assembly—along with all barangays in our republic (42,000+ in all)—convened for the second time this year. One wonders how many bothered to attend the assembly. One wonders which barangays bothered to take up its community’s own agenda, not just the agenda dictated from above.

Unless we attend and take part in the proceedings, the assembly will proceed as before. It will be dominated by people who corner the votes of the poor neighborhoods and make trapos win elections. That’s how we end up governed by the same oligarchs and dynasties who dominate politics for their own ends, establishing illegitimate or corrupt governments on all levels.

If you’ve ever attended a Barangay Assembly, have you noted how the officials dominate and take advantage of the occasion? They deliver speeches and self-serving reports; but the actual Assembly members—the sovereign people—are treated as mere spectators. It is the people’s assembly but all the people can hope for is ask a question during an Open Forum at the tail-end of the program. Their so-called “public servants” do all the talking.

No one seems to know or appreciate what the Barangay Assembly is all about. No one recognizes it, let alone acknowledges it, as a gathering of constituents: the sovereign people, the bosses of the public servants, the voters who elect officials and establish government on all levels. Our Constitution refers to them as the people in whom state sovereignty resides and from whom all government authority emanates.

Participating in the proceedings of the Barangay Assembly is about the only occasion where Filipinos as sovereign citizens perform their governing role in the barangay’s direct democracy. It is a constituent assembly literally; but neither the officials nor the citizens seem to know this.

As a result, local governance has been dysfunctional ever since the law transformed the barangay in 1991 into a full-fledged government. During the 25 years since every community acquired its own set of powers, finances, facilities, and personnel—25 years since the citizenry became part of the barangay government, with the duty to supervise or oversee its operations, the people are still mere spectators in local governance! This is not autonomy; it is oligarchy!
Filipinos have never had the chance to do the governing. 

Their power has been arrogated by officials who treat them as spectators. They cannot oversee the government they created. They exercise no control over officials they install during the elections. Nor can they bring their ideas to the commons unless their “public servants” let them.

Worst of all, they cannot hold erring officials accountable, nor replace incompetent ones.

It is such a pity that Filipinos remain disempowered even during their Barangay Assembly. Individually, citizens are powerless. Their power lies in collective action: when they hold a formal session, which is what the Barangay Assembly is. Only during its session can motions or proposals be deliberated and acted on; that is to say, decisions are made collegially, which then assume the force of law or consensus agreements. This is because the Barangay Assembly is a legislative governing body—or a parliament except in name.
Only when it is in session can members of this local parliament perform their sovereign role. Thus, they ought to be its main participants and discussants, not the officials. It is their Assembly, not their officials’. They ought to be on center stage—with the chairman presiding but not dominating or manipulating the proceedings.

Unfortunately, the people’s governing role in the community is little understood, let alone appreciated. Their Barangay Assembly is literally a Constituent Assembly. But because the provisions of the Local Government Code of 1991 (R.A. 7160) were never taken up in every community, Filipinos remain uninformed and unempowered to this day.

Let this be a call on the educated or elite sector of barangays (the so-called A & B crowd, and the professionals, the role models) to participate. Otherwise governance at grassroots level will remain dysfunctional, controlled by the usual gang of trapos!

Right-thinking Filipinos should take back the power and start performing their governing role. Carpe’ diem! (Mindanao Goldstar Daily)


About the Author:  Manny Valdehuesa is the chairman and national convenor of the Gising Barangay Movement Inc. 

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