A SUPPOSED letter of a barangay chairman in a village in Bulacan circulated in social media. It was supposedly asking the residents of Barangay Pagala in Baliwag, Bulacan whether they would support the candidacy of Davao City mayor Sara Duterte.
Let’s go straight to the point. Barangay officials are supposed to be nonpartisan and apolitical. But this is easier said than done. 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, are created to administer the basic services of local government units to its people. Sadly, they have mostly failed to achieve their potential because they have been extremely politicized; election candidates and supporters brazenly displayed this, thru, among others, vote buying.
A decade ago, a disappointed Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr., author of the Local Government Code, proposed the conversion of barangays from political units into properly organized and therefore viable economic units.
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.
Barangay leaders must be aware of their true functions to transform their villages into viable economic units. 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. This counteracts the autonomy envisioned for them under the Local Government Code.
