Sustainable development at the village level

BANTAY GOBYERNO 

Ike Señeres

Something happened on the way to the future. What used to be called a “barrio” is now called a barangay. What used to be called a “sitio” still exists in many places, but there is no longer any legal basis. Meanwhile, many “subdivisions” have evolved into “villages”, often gated and often exclusive only to the rich. In some cases, several “villages” are located inside a barangay and in other cases; a single “village” becomes a single barangay.

More often than not however, affluent subdivisions are usually called “villages”, while the less affluent residential areas are called barangay. It is very rare that the less affluent areas are called “villages”, as if this term is reserved only for the rich areas. For some reason, there are hardly any “sitios” in Metro Manila and instead there are “puroks”, being the smaller clusters within a barangay.

Despite the variations in the terminologies used, it is very clear that there are smaller clusters within a barangay that are now called villages, “sitios” or “puroks”. For purposes of standardization however, I propose that we should just use the term “village” to refer to these smaller clusters, regardless of whether the residents are rich or poor, and regardless of whether these are located in the cities or in the provinces. The adoption of this standard term should come with the realization that barangays have become bigger than they are supposed to be. As I understand it, barangays are not supposed to be populated by more than one hundred families, perhaps as they used to be in ancient times. I think the reason for the smaller size is to have some kind of a closeness that a small community needs, something that was lost when the barangays ballooned in size.

There is actually some confusion in the way the terms barangay and village are being used. Legaspi Village is supposed to be part of Barangay San Lorenzo, but it is now billed as a business village under the Ayala Corporation, being supposedly formerly a residential village under Barangay San Lorenzo. However, there is also a San Lorenzo Village within Barangay San Lorenzo, and it is not clear whether the latter has exactly the same jurisdiction as the former. The case of Salcedo Village is similar, being billed now as a business village under Ayala Corporation, supposedly formerly a residential village under Barangay Bel-Air. Just the same, there is also a Bel-Air Village, and it is not clear whether the jurisdiction of the latter is the same as the former. It is very clear however that both Legaspi Village and Salcedo Village are also residential villages, even if these are dotted with business establishments.

In much the same way that there is no longer any legal basis for the existence of sitios, there appears to be no legal basis to be under private corporations, meaning to say that they are not under the barangay governments or in other words, they are autonomous.

However, there seems to be a lesson that we could learn from the apparent autonomy of these privately run villages, the fact that they appear to be efficiently run, perhaps more efficiently than those that are under the jurisdiction of the barangay governments.

Even if it is widely known that Legaspi Village and Salcedo Village are under Ayala Corporation, there are village associations that are actually doing the day to day governance, so to speak. Perhaps this is a business model that could be replicated nationwide, to allow villages to handle their own governance, limiting the barangay governments to mostly regulatory functions.

In theory and even in practice, it is very clear that executive functions and regulatory functions could be separated, with no problems in between. As provided for in the Local Government Code (LGC), the municipal governments are supposed to perform their executive functions independently from the provincial governments, limiting the latter to mostly regulatory functions.

Down the line, the structure is supposed to be the same, wherein the barangay governments are supposed to perform their executive functions independently from the municipal governments, limiting the latter to mostly regulatory functions. Since that is supposed to be the case, there is no reason why the village associations could perform their executive functions independently from the barangay governments, limiting the latter to mostly regulatory functions.

As far as I know, the tasks of achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were not delegated downwards to the local levels, meaning to say the provincial level all the way down to the barangay level. That is moot and academic now, because the MGDs have already ended, wherein the Philippines fell short of most of its committed targets.

Up ahead, the Philippines should aim for the achievement of all the new 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). I think that this time around, practically our second chance, we should delegate the tasks of achieving these goals downwards to the local levels, all the way down to the village level.

With so much politics going on all around us, it may actually be a good idea not to have open elections anymore at the village level, and just have open consensus instead on who should become the village officers. It may also be a good idea not to turn over barangay funds to the village associations, and for the barangay governments to just deliver fully funded and completed projects.

As it may actually happen, it may be difficult to reach a consensus as to who should serve as the village officers, because there is no money involved, and there are no funds to be corrupted, so to speak. The truth of the matter is, politicians invest money when they run, expecting to recover their money and to earn more when they get elected. That will no longer happen when there are no elections, and there are no funds to be stolen.

As it is supposed to be, the barangay residents are supposed to attend not only the Barangay Development Councils (BDCs), but also the Barangay Assemblies (BAs). That being the case, the barangay residents should take advantage of these forums to demand their share of the Internal Revenue Allocations (IRAs) that are due to them anyway. Instead of asking for funds however, they should just ask for fully funded and completed projects, in line with their own village level master plans that should be in tune with the SDGs.

Also as it is supposed to be, the agenda items of the BDCs are supposed to be elevated to the Municipal Development Councils (MDCs) and further upwards to the Provincial Development Councils (PDCs) and the Regional Development Councils (RDCs). Too much to do, but that is what the law says.

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