Baguio City barangay pioneers income-generating project

Representative Mark Go, with the officials of DPWH and barangay Pinsao Pilot Project, inaugurates the newly constructed pay parking area of the barangay that can accommodate 15 to 20 vehicles. Also in photo from L-R: Pastor Mario Bildan, head of the monitoring team of Congressman Go; Ret. Police officer Fernando Moyaen; Contractor Joseph Sapdoy; Brgy Captain Sotero Dulaycan; OIC District Engineer Rene Zarate; Kagawad Lydia Culos and the chief of the construction section of DPWH Engr. Alfredo Bannagao Jr. (partly hidden). ROSA MORESTO.

Punong barangay Sotero Dulaycan said the pay parking area covers 190 square meters situated at Purok 7 of the barangay and can accommodate around 15 motor vehicles at a time.
It was earlier identified by the barangay for the purpose in response to the call of Mayor Mauricio Domogan for the barangays to provide parking alternatives for residents who have no spaces in their residences following the implementation of the mayor’s anti-road obstruction order in October last year.
The mayor then encouraged barangays to identify available lots either public or private for conversion into pay parking lots and as enterprise for the barangays. He said the income generated can be used by the barangays for their needs and projects.
The pioneering pay parking structure in Pinsao Pilot is located at the ground floor of the building earlier constructed to house the barangay satellite market, a project funded during the time of former Rep. Nicasio Aliping Jr.
The barangay last year sought the help of Rep. Marquez Go to fund the completion of the structure which will now house the satellite market at the underground floor and the parking structure at the ground level.
Go was able to source out P2 million enabling the completion of the project this year as implemented by the Baguio City District Engineering Office through project engineer Ernesto Eguilos.
The structure was inaugurated last week in simple rites attended by Go, BCDEO officer-in-charge district engineer Rene Zarate and construction section chief Alfredo Bannagao Jr.
Dulaycan said the barangay will come up with rules as to the use of the pay parking structure.
Mayor Domogan last year issued Administrative Order No. 116 creating the “Operation Anti-Road Obstructions” task force composed of various agencies to implement transportation and traffic regulations to address illegal parking and other illegal obstructions along public roads and highways within the city.
The task force was directed “to cause the removal of illegally parked vehicles, equipment, including junked items that are parked, occupying or protruding to the roads, construction materials occupying the right-of-way such as sand, gravel, cement, lumber and steel bars, earth spoils, waste materials, debris, embankment, heaps and the like and all kinds of illegal structures such as houses, buildings, shanties, stores, shops, stalls, sheds, canopies, billboards, signages, advertisements, fences, railings, garbage receptacles and the like obstructing city roads and streets in accordance with existing laws and regulations.” (Thanks to Aileen P. Refuerzo and Rosa Moresto, Zigzag Weekly)

OPINION: Why do we have barangays?

Photo Credit:  OurAwesomePlanet.com

Even as the Philippine-American War was still raging, the Americans started holding local elections, drawing away power, prestige, and taxes from our First Republic. For all the screaming headlines in Metro Manila, it’s still in local governments that the authentic face of our democracy—or lack of it—can be seen. And the most basic unit of local government is the barangay.

Of course, it used to be known as the barrio, as in Barrio Fiesta, Barrio Captain, or even that modern slur, barriotic. In Spanish times, the Teniente del Barrio was also known as the Cabeza de Barangay, who, in the earliest barrios, were the datus or local leaders who accepted Spanish rule. In exchange, Spain made them permanent, hereditary chiefs exempted from the annual period of labor required by the Spanish crown.

The various cabeza de barangay, in turn, elected the gobernadorcillo who was a kind of combined mayor and judge with a term for two years. When a cabeza de barangay died without heirs, or a new barrio was created, the gobernadorcillo in turn was influential in recommending the appointment of the new cabeza de barangay.

All very cozy indeed, until the Americans came along and made everything elective. But since the gobernadorcillos had been elected in the time of Spain anyway, everyone knew what to do, and that was, to campaign as they had always campaigned: with bands, food, promises, and if necessary, the use of the police. The cabeza de barangay became the barrio captain, the bedrock of political machineries from the turn of the 20th century until 1972.

[[Link: until the Americans came along and made everything elective
https://archive.org/details/philippine-electoral-almanac-revised-and-expanded

Adrian Cristobal once observed something to the effect that what Ferdinand Marcos really wanted to be was the Super Rajah ruling over all the minor datus. So it comes as no surprise what he did from 1972 to 1974: first, in December, 1972, he created Citizens Assemblies to solve the problem of his proposed constitution losing if a proper plebiscite was held. Instead, he created something called “Citizen’s Assemblies.” In January, 1973, he renamed the citizen’s assemblies as barangays. And in 1974, he decreed the abolition of the barrio and its replacement with the barangay. 

This was part of a then-fashionable process of making everything native, but as you’ve seen, it also helped erase from memory the democratic system that had existed before. The 1987 Constitution, in turn, preserved the barangay as the basic unit of our government which it is today.

But here’s an interesting thing, courtesy of a scholar named Damon Woods and a provocative piece he wrote titled “The Myth of the Barangay,” which is also the title of a very interesting collection of his essays published by UP Press. Woods basically argues that historians have repeatedly based their belief that the basic pre-hispanic political unit was the barangay, on the basis of a Spanish friar’s report from 1589 on the Tagalogs. 

The problem is, the friar, a Franciscan named Juan Plasencia, never used the word barangay.” It was put in by an American historian, Frederick W. Morrison, when he translated the report for Blair and Robertson in 1903. Every scholar since, Woods says, just carried over this invention and made up increasingly elaborate theories about the barangays that never existed. Instead, Wood argues the Spaniards invented the idea of a barangay—that is why they established the position of cabeza de barangay to replace the title of datu. They had to invent the concept and title because they did not fully understand the societies they were conquering and how they were really organized. Instead they roughly tried to match their own society with its kings, dukes, barons and knights, to what they encountered here.

There’s a lot more in the article, such as, the word bayan being more accurate as far as how people then actually viewed where they lived and their relationship to each other, and how the word bayan, in turn, evolved into our present use of it to mean country while still meaning our localities as in ancient days. But all this is to suggest a basic reality about our barrios turned barangays: whatever style of government is on the surface, the ancient pulse of our society—hierarchical, dynastic, violent—beats in every barangay.

Here then is how the ancient collides with the modern. Here’s a modern-day legal fiction. The barangay is supposed to be non-political. Yet barangay officials are the local leaders on which all other leaders depend. So the result is a typically Filipino exercise in hypocrisy. All politicians claim the barangay is democratic, and nonpolitical, and they all conspire to keep the barangay political and undemocratic, because officially and unofficially, the barangay is the basic building block for all power blocs.

Last week, the Senate finally passed the bill postponing barangay elections. The House had been pushing for such a postponement for some time, after Congress already postponed the elections from October last year to October this year. The House wanted it postponed all the way to 2020. The compromise is to postpone it to 2018. 

Now here is where the hypocrisy comes in. You know we have presidential elections every six years, and legislative and local elections every three years. So we had presidential, national, and local elections in May 2016, and are due to have national and local elections again in May 2019, also known as the mid-terms. Notice, however, the barangay elections don’t adhere to this schedule. Technically, they’re supposed to take place after national polls, in October. But they hardly ever do. This administration is not unique in postponing barangay polls. Its predecessor rescheduled them. And so on. 

Ask yourself why. To be non-political, of course! How noble. Except the practical reason is, any candidate from mayor on up, needs the barangay to form the basis of their political machine. How can you rely on your machine, if its component parts are busy competing in an election? Solution: hold barangay elections on a different date –and you wonder why local leaders keep winning? And you’re surprised that these grateful leaders, in turn, make sure to keep extending the term of the barangay officials that helped them win?

Here’s another example. Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) elections used to be held on a separate date for a similar reason. Out of sight means out of mind, and ARMM could provide a bonanza for national candidates in trouble in an election. But if you synchronized ARMM and national elections, ARMM leaders would be busy fighting their own campaigns to help needy national candidates. So they kindly desynchronized the elections. Finally, in 2013 they got synchronized. Whether this has killed the old use and abuse of ARMM votes still remains to be seen.

Back to the barangay. You might remember the President had proposed that instead of extending the terms of current barangay officials, he should have the power to appoint Officers-in-Charge (OICs) when current terms expire until new elections are held. Knowing on which side their bread is buttered, Congress rejected this. This disappointment might help explain something curious. Despite Congress finally passing a barangay election postponement, the President seems to be taking his time to sign it into law. In the meantime, the barangay election gun ban for this whole month began last Sunday. In the absence of a signed law, the Comelec has to proceed according to schedule. 

As Emil Marañon III has calculated, as of June 20, 2017, there are 56,737,237 barangay election voters, and a subset of 20,920,968 Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) election voters. This is because Congress recently amended the SK election law expanding the vote for SK to include everyone between the ages of 15 to 30 who will in fact, receive two ballots on election day on October 23. That’s a lot of happy candidates competing to make barangay voters happy, too. What’s at stake? Budgets. Take two barangays at random. Barangay San Bartolome, Quezon City in 2013 had a budget of 29.8 million pesos. Barangay Bel-Air in Makati City in 2016 had a budget of 167.5 million pesos. 

Except you can imagine that the President now asking, what’s in it for me? All the local and national leaders will have what they want, while he doesn’t get what he wanted, which was to break the local machines and build one independent of them. Instead, all postponement does is it makes all the other politicians stronger and the presidency dependent on them. 

Presidents, Congresses, even constitutions, come and go—but the datus remain the same. Just call them Mr. Chairman. That’s why all politics, as they say, is local. (ABS-CBN News)

Editor's note:  Thanks to Manolo Quezon, we are reposting this interesting piece of writing about his ideas on how the concept of the barangay evolved into what it is today. His article originally appeared as Bamboozled by Barangay  in his blog The Explainer. The views expressed in his blog are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Barangay Reporter.

Muntinlupa City Barangay Kagawad beats aging jeepney driver over traffic altercation

A 34-second video went viral recently when it caught on camera an incident wherein an aging jeepney driver was helplessly beaten by a man reported to be Ruel Garcia, a Barangay Kagawad in Barangay Cupang in Muntinlupa, City over a traffic altercation.

Posted by a Facebook account Hulicam, the incident allegedly started when the jeepney driver called the attention of the son of Kagawad Garca to tell him that his car was blocking the way of the jeepney.  Instead of complying, witnesses said he started to curse the driver.  Shortly thereafter, the son complained to his father that it was the driver who cursed him.

In a fit of rage, the barangay official immediately confronted the jeepney driver and beat the skinny driver who appeared in the video to be nearing or in his senior years.

It was reported that the same official, in another incident, drew his gun when irked by a tricycle driver. (Thanks to Netizen) 


https://web.facebook.com/hulicamph/videos/1840721575942803/

DILG has new Barangay Affairs Undersecretary

Photo Credit:  Cebu Davao Journey

Martin Diño, former Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) chairman confirmed at a press conference in Manila on Wednesday that he was offered a post at the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG).

Malacañang offered him the position of DILG Undersecretary for barangay affairs, which he accepted, he said.

Diño was former chairman of the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC) and had been appointed to the SBMA in September 2016. He was a presidential candidate in the 2016 elections, but withdrew and nominated  Duterte as the substitute standard-bearer of the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban).

Diño was replaced by SBMA administrator Wilma Eisma as SBMA chairperson after President Rodrigo Duterte issued Executive Order 42, which repealed former President and now Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s Executive Order 340 which separated the powers and duties of the SBMA chairperson and administrator.

Diño said he has no resentment over his departure from SBMA and that he remains supportive of the President and his programs. (Thanks to Kicker Daily News)

Barangay and SK elections no reason not to push through - Sen. Bam Aquino

Photo Credit:  Joel Liporada/Rappler

Sen. Bam Aquino called on the government to leave no stone unturned to ensure that the long-overdue barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections will be held as scheduled in May 2018.

“The imminent postponement of the barangay and SK elections next month will give our election officials and other stakeholders an additional eight months to prepare and iron out all the kinks,” said Sen. Bam.

‘This election is long overdue kaya dapat tiyakin ng ating mga opisyal na ito’y matutuloy na sa susunod na taon. Wala nang maaari pang gamiting dahilan dahil may sapat silang panahon para plantsahin ang lahat ng gusot,” added Sen. Bam.

The measure seeking to postpone the barangay and SK elections was recently approved by the House and Senate. There will be no bicameral conference committee as the House adopted the Senate version of the measure on Monday. The Senate version calls for the postponement to May 2018 and the holdover of current officials until the elections.

At the same time, Sen. Bam urged the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and other private stakeholders to help encourage the youth to participate in the 2018 SK elections to give them a chance to work for the welfare of their sector.

“Kailangan nating kumbinsihin ang ating mga kabataan na lumahok sa nakatakang SK elections sa susunod na taon upang mabigyan sila ng pagkakataong makapag-ambag para sa kanilang kapakanan at sa pagpapalakas ng komunidad,” explained Sen. Bam.

Sen. Bam said the 2018 SK elections must push through to check if Republic Act 10742 or the SK Reform Act will initiate reform in the SK and make it more responsive to the needs of the country’s youth and the development of the next generation of leaders.

The law, which Sen. Bam pushed as co-author and co-sponsor during his time as chairman of the Committee on Youth in the 16th Congress, law adjusts age limit of SK officials from 15-17 to 18-24 years old, making them legally capable of entering into contracts and be held accountable and liable for their actions.

The SK Reform Act also requires SK officials to undergo leadership training programs to expose them to the best practices in governance and guide their development as leaders.

The new law also mandates the creation of the Local Youth Development Council (LYDC), a council that will support the SK and ensure the participation of more youth through youth organizations.

The LYDC will be composed of representatives from the different youth organizations in the community – student councils, church and youth faith groups, youth-serving organizations, and community-based youth groups. (Sen. Bam Aquino website)

14 Baguio City barangays oppose Camp John Hay claim over their lands

Camp John Hay in Baguio City  Photo Credit HeraldExpress

BAGUIO CITY – Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan and the punong barangays of the fourteen barangays within the 686-hectare Camp Jon Hay (CJH) reservation expressed their vehement opposition to the processing of the patents applied for by the John Hay Management Corporation (JHMC) over portions of the said barangays.

The local chief executive said that the act of JHMC and the State-run Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) is in alleged violation of one of the 19 conditions imposed by the local government for the development of the former American rest and recreation center which is to segregate the area covered by the 14 barangays from the CJH reservation so that it will be the qualified individual occupants who will be processing the titles over their properties.

“We cannot understand why JHMC still continues to work on the applied patenting of various lands within the fourteen barangays when it was already brought to the attention of former JHMC officials that the local government and the concerned barangays are against the said move considering that it will defeat the purpose of the segregation of the barangays from the John Hay reservation,” Domogan stressed.

He underscored that the patenting of the lands in the different barangays as being done by the CDA and JHMC is allegedly geared towards the fact that it will be the two corporations that will eventually sell the patented properties which is not in accordance to the conditions imposed by the local government for the development of the 247-hectare John Hay Special Economic Zone (JHSEZ).

Resolution No. 362, series of 1994 provides for the 19 conditions imposed by the local government purposely to pave the way for the development of the declared 247-hectare special economic zone which was unanimously approved by the first members of the BCDA Board of Directors.

According to him, what JHMC and BCDA should do now is to fastrack the segregation of the barangays so that qualified individual homelot applicants can process the titles of their properties through the Townsite Sales Application, Miscellaneous Sales Application or patent, depending on what is applicable.

He said that he will bring the matter to the attention of the JHMC and BCDA for them to stop the processing of the applied patents over the different barangays and for the State corporations to instead fastrack the long-delayed processing of the segregation of the 14 barangays from the reservation.

He stated that the decision to patent the lands in the different barangays was spearheaded by former BCDA president and chief executive officer Arnel Paciano Casanova and JHMC president Dr. Jamie Eloise Agbayani but he is not aware if the present batch of BCDA and JHMC officials are inclined to pursue the plan as there has been no continuous dialogue between city officials and those in the BCDA and JHMC.

The BCDA and its subsidiary, the JHMC, is the manager and administrator of all former United States military bases and facilities in the country and it is mandated to allocate funds for the modernization of the armed forces through the income derived from the operation of the said installations nationwide. (HeraldExpress)

Legazpi City barangay imposes P1,000 fine for residents not registering their visitors

The inter-barangay visitors registration EO.
Interaksyon photo

A Legazpi City resident is opposing a P1,000 per day penalty proposed by her barangay if residents do not abide by the Office of the Mayor’s Executive Order No. 36-2017, which requires persons staying at another barangay for 24 hours or more to register his or her name, purpose, and duration of stay at the barangay hall.

A local government official has stressed that the municipal EO does not violate residents’ privacy, as well as their liberty of abode and traveling.

EO No. 36-2017, or “An Executive Order Prescribing Guidelines for the Inter-Barangay Travel Registration Mechanism” reasons that the registration of visitors is needed to achieve a crime- and drug-free country, and to protect barangays from drug users and pushers, as well as from criminals and other “unwanted personalities”.

In a phone interview with InterAksyon, tour operator Jessica Imperial said their barangay captain talked to her and her neighbors on Thursday about the EO, mentioning that a nearby motel should comply and proposing that there should be a penalty of P1,000 so that the EO would have “teeth”.

“You cannot make a penalty just like that,” Imperial said. “Sinong hindi aalma doon (Who wouldn’t oppose it)?”

Barangays should have uniform rules, she added. She also disagreed with the thinking that those who weren’t doing anything wrong had no reason to resist the penalty, and pointed out that their barangay hall was relatively far, meaning they would have to take a tricycle every time they had a visitor over for 24 hours or more.

“Why is this a concern for me? Because there would be room for abuse,” Imperial said. “I feel that my rights are being curtailed.”

How would the authorities know that the visitor had been staying in the resident’s home for 24 hours already?

“Ano, kakatukin ka nila sa bahay mo, ‘Hoy, may bisita ka, 24 hours na ‘yung bisita mo!’ Sasabihin mo, ‘Ay hindi, wala akong bisita.’ So what are they going to do? Are they going to enter your house and force you? ‘Ito ‘yung bisita mo, andito sa kwarto mo, ayan, tinatago mo sa cabinet, o!’” she asked.

(“Are they going to knock on your door, saying, ‘Hey, you have a visitor, and your visitor has been there for 24 hours already!’ And you say, ‘No, I don’t have a visitor.’ So what are they gonna do? Are they gonna enter your house and force you? ‘Here’s your visitor, in your room, there, hiding in your cabinet!'”)

“I may sound exaggerating, but, hey, these things can be cause for abuse. Kasi paano kung may komisyon ‘yung humuhuli (What if the enforcer has a commission to earn)? Iisipin nila, ‘May P1,000 ako kada isang huli’ (They’ll think, ‘I have P1,000 per apprehension’),” she added.

“I’m already 40 years old and this is the first time I’ve heard of this,” Imperial said, noting that she had lived in different cities in Metro Manila, as well, and had never experienced anything similar to it. She added that she had asked people who lived through Marcos-era Martial Law if they were asked to register their visitors as well, and was told that they were not.

She stressed that one’s right to privacy, right to travel, and liberty of abode are all guaranteed by Article III of the 1987 Constitution.

Nevertheless, Imperial said, she was not angry with the barangay captain, as he has no choice but to follow the EO. But, she said, they might need a crash course on lawmaking, as they shouldn’t be imposing penalties just because they wanted to.

As for Legazpi City Mayor Noel Rosal, she believed he had good intentions, but it was possible that his legal advisers had not studied the repercussions of the EO properly.

The inter-barangay visitors registration E.O.

In a Facebook post, Imperial suggested other ways to make their community safe: “One is the bayanihan system where we look out for each other. If there are suspicious-looking people in your community, then call 911 or a hotline number to inform the barangay.”

Also, she said that the barangay can assign roving tanods 24/7 for the residents’ security… “In subdivisions, guards ask for the ID of each visitor and also ask them what house they are going to visit. In exclusive subdivisions in Manila, guards even check first with the homeowner if they will allow the visitors to enter. Can we do this instead?”

Meanwhile, National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers secretary-general Atty. Edre Olalia called the EO “another ill-advised Big Brother scheme under the guise of order but without peace.”

“It is in open violation not only of the fundamental right to privacy but also freedom to travel and liberty of abode. Indeed it is open to question of constitutionality. The problem really is that national and local government officials and public officers take their cue and are emboldened by the draconian gimmicks and fascist fantasies of the national leadership,” he said. “(President Rodrigo) Duterte has sent the signal that brazen and orchestrated violations of individual rights is the new normal and you can let it slide in the name of the fight against criminality and drugs.”

In seeking the side of the LGU, InterAksyon was referred by a staff member of the Office of the Mayor to an Atty. Belgica from its legal office.

In reply to InterAksyon’s text, Belgica said that the LGU’s stand was in a Facebook post he/she wrote. Asked for his/her Facebook account, Belgica didn’t reply, nor did he/she answer InterAksyon’s calls.

The Facebook post is presumably that of Mayette Belgica-Cledera, which reads:

“The Mayor’s Executive Order merely requires barangays to keep a record of all non-residents who will stay in their barangay for more than 24 hours… nothing more. This is not violative of one’s liberty of abode and travel since it does not prohibit traveling from one barangay to another. Neither is it a violation of one’s privacy. All you have to give is your name. This is but akin to writing your name in the logbook before you enter government offices, or private subdivisions, or hotels, or motels, etcetera. This is not at all indicative of martial law, as some people already imply. So I hope we will not make a big issue out of this…but really, if you find the EO unconstitutional, then we welcome challenge before the proper forum. We will abide if there will be a court pronouncement to that effect. Until then, we will highly appreciate it if people will not overreact. Thank you.”

Atty. Bart Rayco of NUPL-Albay added that the Legazpi City Mayor “overreached jumping in his executive order under the pretext of maintaining peace and order and preventing criminality.”

On the registration of visitors, he said, “signing and logging in when one visits government offices is an off-beam comparison. It is certainly not similar to a visit to a relative or friend based on a very plain reason: the first is official business while the second is private.” (Interaksyon)