ACCORDING to the Police Regional Office 6 (PRO-6), 76 barangay officials in Western Visayas are involved in illegal drugs – 20 village chiefs and 56 barangay kagawads.
Police Brigadier General Sidney Villaflor, PRO-6 acting director, declined to disclose which province, city or barangay these village officials belonged but he said some were protectors while others were actively trafficking illegal drugs.
The PRO-6 made this disclosure weeks before the start of the election period for the barangay election. We are reminded of then President Duterte postponing the October 2016 barangay election due to narcopolitics.
“Do you know the reason why I also agreed to postpone the barangay elections? Do you know why? Because I am afraid that the drug money will seep into the electoral process,” said Duterte.
Apparently, the problem is still around; it has survived the Duterte administration’s brutal war on drugs and even if the barangay election was postponed by the previous administration to avert the flow of drug money to the villages.
But aside from narcopolitics in the barangay level, there’s another pressing concern about the barangay election. Barangay officials and councils are supposed to be nonpartisan and apolitical. Sadly, it has become a norm that most barangay leaders have become minions of ruling politicians – mayors, congressmen and governors.
Barangays, the most basic administrative units in the country, have mostly failed to achieve their potential because they have been extremely politicized. Election after election, candidates and supporters brazenly display this, thru, among others, vote buying. Indeed, it is difficult to shield barangays from politics because they are financially dependent on local government units. They get their logistics and budget from their city or municipal governments. Like local government units, the continuing dependence of barangays on their internal revenue allotments (IRA) is keeping them tied to the power that disburses the IRA.
Actually, the Local Government Code has given the barangays the power to become true economic units by raising local taxes. However, most of them fail to exercise this power. The reason is that either they have become too independent on the IRA or the barangay officials are unaware that the Code has wielded them with such power.
As long as barangays continue to depend on the IRA for their operation, they would remain as subjects to the dictates of higher local government units – or even drug traffickers who can bribe with lots of money.
