Barangay Captain Abdul Aziz Natanauan slouched as he sat speaking, staring intently at his phone's camera lens as if to address his constituents, looking them straight in the eye.
“Good morning to all of you, especially to you, Congressman Alan Cayetano,” he said in Filipino, his voice heavy with a Batangueño accent.
“I am a barangay captain. I am struggling to explain to people what you said about all families receiving aid, which is not true,” he said in Filipino.
The barangay captain held the Facebook live address on Sunday, April 5. It has since burst on social media, especially among barangay officials. As of April 8, the video has been viewed 1.1 million times and shared over 96,000 times.
He was reacting to a widely shared Facebook video clip of the House Speaker and staunch Duterte ally saying that social amelioration card (SAC) forms should be given “per household.” SAC forms are the government’s validation tool to determine which families are eligible for P5,000 to P8,000 cash aid through the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act.
However, there is a limited and predetermined number of forms, making the act of validation itself selective. Natanauan’s constituents used Cayetano’s video to demand for forms and actual help.
“My request, since it seems that you are not helping our people, is that you shouldn’t add to the problem,” Natanauan said.
The video of Cayetano is only a follow-up to President Rodrigo Duterte’s own announcement after declaring
the Luzon lockdown: that people who go hungry should go to their barangay
captains.
“Where will people get food? It behooves upon the barangay captain. You barangay captains, listen. This is a mandatory duty. It does not have to have a law," Duterte said in a pre-recorded address aired on Monday, March 16, as coronavirus cases in the country continued to rise.
Natanauan is a barangay captain in Talisay, Batangas. He has to keep watch over around 2,500 families, but based on the government’s count, only 821 SAC forms would be given to them.
Another barangay had it worse.
In Barangay San Luis, Antipolo City, sitio chairpersons have been threatened by their constituents with violence – once with a bolo, another time with a hammer – citing Cayetano’s video too, as they demanded help.
“We want to serve our country, but we don’t want our children to be orphaned or be put in danger while helping our neighbors. Because of this, we are already giving up distributing SAC forms, and we won’t allow ourselves to be a part of this chaotic policy anymore,” they said in Filipino.
The frustrations of the barangay officials aired on social media only revealed the tip of the struggles of local governance under lockdown, where local officials are overwhelmed by the social relief crisis and the spread of the disease, all while being left confused and uncertain by the Duterte government’s policy guidelines.
“The problem is that we weren’t prepared. Day to day, there are new guidelines. When they announced a lockdown, there were problems and questions. They are creating guidelines a piece at a time,” said University of the Philippines professor Maria Ela Atienza in a phone interview with Rappler on Tuesday, April 7.
For the national government, however, the outbreak of the coronavirus is an unprecedented crisis that, whether or not the local governments are prepared, they must face given what they have.
“This is not an ideal situation, but we don’t have any other system aside from people on the ground, the barangay officials,” Department of the Interior and Local Government Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya told Rappler on April 8. (Read Rappler full story) Photo credit: Rodolfo Palma
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