The 1987 Philippine Constitution defines the barangay as the smallest political subdivision in the system of government while the Local Government Code of 1991 enhances the definition by stating, among others, that a barangay must have at least 5,000 inhabitants to legally exist as one of the smallest political subdivision. Further, the Code allows Punong Barangays to receive a monthly salary equivalent to Salary Grade 12 while barangay kagawads and other appointive officials are qualified to receive monthly salaries equivalent to Salary Grade 10.
In Baguio City, the existing and recognized number of barangays is 128 after the dissolution of barangay Bagong Lipunan, situated within the city’s central business district area. Using the law of averages based on the city’s population of 346,000 as of the 2015 Population Census, each of the city’s barangays will have a population of at least 3,000 which will not qualify them to legally exist as barangays. The number of barangays of the city existed before the enactment of the Local Government Code. Officials have chosen to ignore this anomaly which is a political common sense for these politicians in need of votes. Of the city’s existing barangays, only 8 to 10 barangays are qualified to legal exist as barangays pursuant to the definition of the code while the rest of the barangays do not have the right to exist. One can imagine a barangay in the central business district that has a voting population of 200 but it was able to exist as a barangay over the past several decades. Another barangay in the central business district has also registered voters numbering 42 that uses a single address and when one visits the said place, it is simply a small room that cannot even accommodate a maximum of five able-bodied individuals.
Because of the inability of most of the city’s barangays to achieve the minimum required population, most barangay officials do not enjoy the proper compensation for their round-the-clock duties that is why they make their barangay duties as part-time while focusing on their regular livelihoods. Ironically, most of the barangay officials in the lesser populated barangays in the city are tempted to be involved in corrupt activities that tend to compromise their credibility which is their last resort just to be able to provide the basic needs of their families. Some barangays compensate their Punong Barangay with a monthly honorarium of P2,700 monthly while their kagawads and other appointive officials get monthly honoraria of P1,500 or even less depending on the available Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) and the generated resources of the barangay.
To address the pressing concern of barangays having to comply with the law to exist as barangays and to motivate barangay officials to concentrate on serving their constituents, the merging of barangays that do not meet the requirements of the law was proposed over two decades ago but due to obvious parochial interests of barangay officials and the absence of the proper information and education campaign, it was not pursued because of the alleged effect of the unpopular issue to the political career of some officials.
Lately, Mayor Mauricio Domogan created a task force to conduct a thorough study and consultations with the barangays for the possible merger of most of the barangays to reduce the number to a reasonable one that will allow the created barangays to comply with the provisions of the Code. Based on initial results of the study and consultations with the concerned stakeholders, only 34 to 37 barangays will be created from the city’s 128 barangays that will guarantee efficient and effective service of barangay officials and employees, among others. With the merger of barangays, public service will no longer be a part-time job but will allow dedicated public servants to sustain service to their constituents.
We salute our dedicated and responsible barangay officials, who, despite only receiving small honoraria from the available resources of their barangays, rendered quality service to their constituents and were not swallowed by the corruption. These are the people who deserve to be in the career of serving their constituents because they spent a huge portion of their life in serving their barangays. On the other hand, we condemn barangay officials who simply used their influence to enrich themselves and just made money out of their positions, some through dubious means. This is the reason why the people did not bring back the said barangay officials to serve them again. We need the political will of our city and barangay officials to realize the merger of our existing barangays. It is high time for everyone to set aside their political interests for the greater majority of the populace because the people actually know who are the true servants and who are just the lame ducks and fence sitters. Let us vouch for quality public service and put things in their right perspective so that the merger will not remaining hanging in the air.
