Manny Valdehuesa .
SO long have the Filipino people been treated to pompous, highfalutin demagoguery about democracy, autonomy, or selfule. So much said also about championing and protecting their wellbeing.
We even have a president who pompously avows his intent to “to kill” anyone who offends or destroys “my people,” “my soldiers,” “my country”—saying so un-self-consciously and with undisguised bravado, as if he really owns them!
But always and invariably all the people get treated to is dysfunctional government that acts presumptuously, unilaterally, and brutally.
The West Philippine Sea and its islands are violated by China, as is the Philippine Rise in the Pacific north of Aurora Province; scores of Filipino adults and youth are systematically destroyed by drugs smuggled in by Chinese entrepreneurs. But all we hear about are concessions made by a government that tiptoes around this bullying behemoth to our north. And unresolved killings in drug raids.
The leadership is careful not to provoke the Chinese Dragon or court trouble—as if Filipinos are strangers to whatever trouble can be imagined! Doing so is acting presumptuously and unilaterally; Filipinos are not consulted!
Then there’s the unruly treatment of the Rule of Law. Too many exceptions, too many deceptions. Killings, extrajudicial. Officials engaged in crime or criminal enterprise, enjoying impunity. An on-going impeachment process initiated against the highest magistrate is halted in its tracks by a quo warranto filing by a functionary of the executive branch who himself defies having to account for ethical and possibly criminal lapses.
As if all these aren’t infuriating enough, failure to enforce certain statutes, like the Constitution’s anti-dynasty provision, blithely goes on. Even the long mandated policy of autonomy, or self-government, a fairly simple idea, is neglected, left wide open for violators to trample at will.
It’s been more than a generation (all of 27 years!) since the Local Government Code of 1991 (R.A. 7160) was enacted by Congress. They touted it as the ultimate autonomy law, that even the barangay (which it has given an all-inclusive governing body) would be autonomous. It was meant to exemplify (literally!) how a government of the people, by the people, and for the people operates. Here’s how it operates.
It is a “government of the people” because it consists of all the constituents in every neighborhood, each one vested with authority to speak or decide directly (without need of a representative or spokesperson) when meeting officially—in their Barangay Assembly which is a legislative governing body.
It is a “government by the people” because the people themselves do the governing—identifying and defining local problems together, deliberating and deciding what priorities to tackle, collectively deciding what measures to adopt, then acting together as a community does.
It is a “government for the people” because all decisions or acts undertaken by it is designed to secure and enhance their own welfare, all of them and not just some.
Where in the Philippine archipelago today is there such a barangay government? Where is there a barangay that is truly self-governing or autonomous? Is there any that is controlled or even influenced by its constituents? It’s the other way around.
Supposedly in effect for a quarter of a century already, the Local Government Code has not made a dent in the behavior or demeanor of local governments. And so the spirit of autonomy or selfule, let alone its practice, continues to be missing among local governments.
(Manny Valdehuesa Jr. is a former Unesco regional director for Asia-Pacific; secretary-general, Southeast Asia Publishers Association; director, development academy of Philippines; member, Philippine Mission to the UN; vice chair, Local Government Academy; member, government peace panel during the administration of Corazon Aquino; awardee, PPI-Unicef outstanding columnist. An author of books on governance, he is chairman/convenor of Gising Barangay Movement Inc.. E-mail: valdehuesa@gmail.com)
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