THE MOUNTAINEER

Travails of public officials
Edison Baddal

BONTOC, Mountain Province -- The assumption to office of a new crop of elective officials is usually accompanied by disorientation, dislocation and a general feeling of inconvenience on their part. This is due to the broad spectrum of responsibilities, functions and duties foisted on them and which they must have to attend to.

Also, the fact that an elective official‘s time and resources must be shared with the public adds to the heavy burden, particularly to the political subdivision where he has been elected. This runs true for all officials, either for national or local.

Public office, basically a many-faceted endeavor every which way, is no less discommoding and disheartening as burdens of a public officer are multiplied a hundredfold. What’s more, as his dependents are no longer confined to the members of the household but including all his constituents as well, which may run into tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands, his headaches correspondingly increase in intensity and range.

If anything, public office though a public trust and a repository of political power and authority, is never enviable as it is a thankless job. Public officials, who are themselves inherently human as everybody else, are not seldom under sharp and constant public scrutiny. The high expectations they engendered in their spiels and the gumption they personified during electoral campaigns that led to their electoral victories oftentimes prove to be their undoing as they are expected to deliver the bacon, sometimes unreasonably fast at that.

As always, any misfeasance, malfeasance and nonfeasance of a public official always invite vitriolic attacks from the public. Given the fact that constituents are so demanding, they usually carp on every detail of an official pronouncement. Or they simply fuss on imagined or perceived ramification of an official deed which virtually negates whatever good that may ensue in the process.

As a result, favorable acts rendered are often arbitrarily denied appreciation while a minor wrongdoing or facetious gaffe is blown out of proportion. And basically seeks the implacable public to revile the official provenance. As it is, public office in its entirety, is like a barbecue grill with the holder always subject to the smoldering embers of denunciation, remonstration and diatribe.

Having foreseen the unenviable conditions that public officials are subjected to, the oversight committee which drafted the RA 7160 (AKA Local Government Code of 1991) mandated the organization of the Local Special Bodies (LSBs). The main goal is to facilitate the job of local officials, particularly the Local Chief Executive (LCE). The LCE is especially vulnerable to public scrutiny as he virtually carries the burden of effectively dispensing basic services.

The LGC, touted as the bible of local governance, provides the powers and responsibilities of local officials. It likewise contains the different aspects of local governance like Development Planning, Community Mobilization, Budgeting, Treasury Operations and others including the mandatory organization of the Local Special Bodies.

As it has been statutorily prescribed, LCEs are mandated and should therefore go through the process of organizing them in the initial month of their tenure. These LSBs have been designed primordially to assist the Local Chief Executive dispense effectively his functions and duties. In view of this, they are considered natural adjuncts of Local Government Units (LGUs).In the main, these bodies are involved in formulating or recommending measures that redound to the general welfare of the citizenry. They are also intended as vital link or channels by which constituents or people participate in government process.

These LSBs are: Local Development Council (LDC), Local Peace and Order Council (LPOC), Local School Board (LSB), Local Health Board (LHB), Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) and People’s Law Enforcement Board (PLEB).The Non-Government Organizations/People’s Organizatrions (NGOs/POs) are the people’s representatives in the LSBs.

All the LSBs, except the BAC, have NGO/PO members with the LDC having the most number
of members at no less than one-fourth of the total membership.

The LPOC, on the other hand, has 3 members from theprivate sector which is either from the
sector on business, academe, youth, indigenous, media organizations and others aside from
the representative of the veterans’ group in the local chapter. The BAC has no NGO/PO
member as its task is basically distinct, let alone more sensitive, than the other LSBs.
It is charged with bidding and awarding of supplies to a private supplier for and in behalf
of a procuring entity in the Local Government Unit concerned.

But inasmuch as the intention in the organization of the LSBs is to facilitate the job of the
LCE, the latter is also charged with functionalizing or operationalizing the LSBs. The effectivity
of these LSBs as helpmeets of the LCE in the labyrinthine process of governance is the responsibility of the executive. It solely depends on the LCE if he believes on the
importance of these bodies as vital cogs in achieving effective governance.

However, aside from the LSBs, other statutes arelikewise requiring the LCEs to organize this and that
body. For instance, PD 1566 mandates the organization of the Disaster Coordinating Councils. In the same vein, RA 7610 mandates the organization of the Child Protection Councils
while RA 9003 obliges the LGUs to organize the Solid Waste Management Boards. Many other
committees and councils, aside from the above, are being required of the LGUs to organize like the Literacy Coordinating Council, Price Monitoring Council, Small and Medium
Entrepreneurship Dev’t Council, Project Monitoring Council among others

The problem is that with these innumerable councils, committees and bodies to be organized and activated as far as practicable by LCEs there is a tendency for these bodies
to be left in the backburner as paper organizations or paper tigers. This could be so despite the avowed significance they play in the attainment of effective, responsive
and responsible local governments.

In fact, with countless concerns vis-à vis local governance that an LCE is confronted
with all the time, functionalizing these bodies, including the LSBs, will become the least priority. And such inactivity vitiates such bodies to no more than nominal bodies and bureaucratic props.