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.
