(Continued from April 8 issue)
AS IT IS SUPPOSED to be, there is also supposed to be a separate Barangay Development Council (BDC) that is other than the BC itself. As it is supposed to be, the Non-Government Organizations (NGO) within the barangay are supposed to be invited to the BDC but the invitations never go out, thus the BDC is hardly ever convened, and that is again contrary to what the law requires.
Also as it is supposed to be, the resolutions of the BDC are supposed to be elevated to the Municipal Development Council (MDC). Up the ladder, the resolutions of the MDC are supposed to be elevated to the Provincial Development Council (PDC), and the resolutions of the PDC are supposed to be elevated to the Regional Development Council (RDC).
All combined the BDCs, MDCs, PDCs and RDCs are supposed to be the formal and official venues where the voters (acting as the citizens) could actually participate in the active governance of the barangay, municipal, provincial and regional levels.
As it is supposed to be, these development councils are supposed to be the venues where development planning is supposed to happen as part of a process that should involve not only the elected and appointed officials, but everyone in all of those levels.
Needless to say, bottom up budgeting (BUB) is and should be part of the development planning process, simply because budgeting is really nothing more than budget planning, so to speak.
I understand that there are many people who do not like to support the government, but that is the reason why I started with the premise that we “own” the government and that it is not alien to us. To a large extent, it could be said that the empowerment of government would need the engagement of the people, but that is not really new, because democracy after all is a social contract that requires the participation of the governed.
At the risk of making it sound too simplistic, I would still say that the empowerment of government by the people could simply mean participation in the BDC and the BA at the barangay level. But that should not stop there, because the private sector and the civil society should participate in all levels of the Local Development Councils (LDCs).
Truth to tell, the government does not always have enough resources to be able to deliver quality public service oriented programs. That is where the private sector and the civil society could come in to help.
After all, there are no limits to public and private cooperation in good governance./PN