The Barangay: solution or problem

Posted by giancarloangulo on October 3, 2018 · 98 Comments 

Zamboanga City, Lunzuran Barangay Hall [Photo from zamboanga.com]

By JoeAm

We’ve had numerous discussions here at the blog about the barangay system and whether it works to good advantage or not. The general consensus is that it is ‘troubled’, to be kind, but that there are some aspects that are valuable.

Although I don’t want to get tedious about all the rules, because they are ominous, it is important to get the particulars out in a short-form, layman’s synopsis. That gets us all on the same page.

The barangay concept

The barangay is a “little government” with an executive branch, legislature, and judicial function. It is patterned after most governments with executive (captain and council) running things (health care, water systems, etc.), legislature developing new rules and monitoring old ones, and a judicial system that seeks to resolve small, localized conflicts without going to the regional courts.

Barangays are well funded through a share of the Internal Revenue Allotment (about 20% of the IRA goes to barangays) allocated by National to cities and municipalities. They also receive share of certain taxes and fees raised locally, and directly assess some fees (water service, etc.). An annual budget for a typical barangay might be in the range of P2 million to P4 million pesos per year.

Expenditures are for staff (captain at least P1,000 per month and other officials P600) plus certain insurance, hospitalization and tuition benefits, plus all the other work done to keep the community clean, orderly, and with basic water, health, and legal services. Plus fiestas. [Compensation and Benefits of Barangay Officials]

The barangay captain is the power person locally. He enforces laws, negotiates contracts, maintains public order, chairs the council, appoints staff, organizes emergency activities, plans the budget and approves spending, handles pollution control, administers the judicial function, ensures delivery of mandated services, conducts the annual fiesta, and promotes the general welfare of the community.[THINGS YOU NEED to KNOW: BARANGAYS and its OFFICIALS]

The barangay assembly is all the citizens of the community. They are occasionally called to a meeting to coordinate events, provide guidance, or receive guidance.

The judicial function is one of conciliation, whereby the captain applies his neutral position to the resolution of cases and, if necessary, works with the barangay court (10 to 20 local residents) to form small panels to deal with troublesome issues. Major conflicts (requiring imprisonment of more than one year or a fine more than P5,000) go directly to the municipal court. So do cases involving residents of more than one barangay.

The judicial function is tediously detailed. It takes a lawyer to understand them. Unfortunately, most barangay officials have no such background. [GUIDELINES ON THE KATARUNGANG PAMBARANGAY CONCILIATION PROCEDURE ]; [THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT CODE OF THE PHILIPPINES, BOOK III, LOCAL GOVERNMENT UNITS, TITLE ONE. – THE BARANGAY]

Problems, Importance, and Opportunities

There are two main problems with the barangay system. I’ll call them (1) political opportunism, and (2) incompetence.

Political opportunism arises from the reality that a city or municipality is a captured political system. Everyone knows how their bread gets buttered. The mayor demands and gets loyalty from the barangay captains. If the mayor is pro-Marcos, the barangay captains are pro-Marcos, and local residents are persuaded to back Marcos. Likewise, within the barangay, the captain is politically powerful and can take care of friends well and enemies badly. He decides where money is spent, as well.

Incompetence arises because the captain, council members, and other staff are often not professionals. They may be farmers or unemployed or housewives, not attorneys, not business managers. So things don’t get done or get done poorly.

I love the hammer-to the head assessment by Sara Soliven De Guzman who wrote about the real-world situation in Barangay 101 [PhilStar, 2013]:

Okay, hold your horses and don’t get sensitive. Of course there are exceptions here. First, those running [in elections] seemingly have had no stable career in their lives. Some are certified bums. Some have dropped out of school. Some are too lazy to keep an 8-5 job. Some may even be drunkards, gamblers, drug addicts or small town ‘bullies’. Some are merely spoiled rotten brats looking for something to do. Second, some changed careers thinking there is more money in politics (they are probably right since many suddenly become rich).

The three most important benefits that make the barangay valuable are:

Well, alas, incompetence is cumulative so water systems are glued together haphazardly, there may or may not be metering, and people today get their information from social media or texting rather than community meetings. Essentially the old “word of mouth” value has become less important. It is hard to tell whether money spent by a barangay is “highest and best use”. No one is really watching that carefully.

An exhaustive study  of the barangay system was done in 2010 by the Philippine Institute for Development Studies. [Do Barangays Really Matter in Local Services Delivery? Some Issues and Policy Options]. Here are some excerpts from the conclusions:

Decentralization has been in existence for almost two decades in the Philippines. Yet, barangays mostly in the rural areas are still stuck into the quagmire of incompetence and inefficiency, unable to deliver better basic services, if at all, and being complacent on the status quo because of policy, institutional, financial binding constraints undergirded by political, economic, social, and cultural factors. Unless and until barangays perform better in the provision of basic services, decentralization defeats its very purpose – . . .

The policy interventions or options proposed in this paper, i.e. higher LGUs taking responsibility for services barangays cannot deliver, making a paradigm shift in understanding and practicing economic development, and getting incentives right for fiscal governance and economic advancement, may take a while before they could impact as intended. For the process of change is incremental, that is, it does not happen overnight, and that the agents of change (local elites, barangay officials, local communities) have to be convinced  . . .

The study concludes that, given a choice between struggling to deliver basic services and being a part of a self-sufficient, capable influence in making people’s lives better, barangays would choose the latter if they are to really matter in local service delivery.

Sara Soliven De Guzman puts it as follows:

If positive changes can be achieved in the barangay level, changes in the national level will surely come easy. But the problem is that we cannot effect change in the barangay because some of the leaders are dummies of top local officials who have taken great pains in ensuring that their power extends down to this level. So how can you expect puppets to walk or talk when they are controlled by their masters? Yes, if the Barangay Chairman is too weak to know what is right for his community, he will allow his mayor or city officials to influence him. This is where the problem begins, all leading to poor and inefficient public service.

Catch 22.

No city or barangay official wants to cut himself and friends off from the gravy train.

Filed under Citizenship/Patriotism, Culture and Arts, Laws and Ethics, Philippine Government