Everybody’s business

By: Manny Valdehuesa

A BARANGAY is a public corporation representing the interests of its stakeholders (the constituents) by managing their common resources. Its charter is affirmed in Sec. 15, R.A 7160. Its board of directors is the Sangguniang Barangay—which oversees the corporation’s day-to-day affairs on behalf of the stakeholders. Its Stockholders Meeting is the Barangay Assembly, and the Stock Certificate of its members is their voter’s I.D.

This public corporation earns more in revenues than most corporations, commercial or otherwise. It has recurring income consisting of shares from national taxes (Internal Revenue Allotment), real property taxes, payments from extractors of national wealth (mining, quarrying, fishery, forestry), fees from barangay permits, licenses, and the like. And it has access to funds from national agencies and grants or subsidies from other sources, local or foreign.

Like any corporation, a barangay can increase its resources or assets by investing, lending, or borrowing, by creating enterprises, or establishing revenue-earning projects. It can acquire or sell property. It can forge joint ventures with public or private investors. In other words, it can do what other corporations do including negotiate with banks for loans or financing.

But virtually none of this is happening because of ignorance, corruption, or plain mismanagement. The millions in revenues that barangays earn are treated largely as a spending allowance instead of as capital for investment or development. Not only that, claiming a falsehood that decades of trapos have perpetrated—i.e. that unspent or unobligated barangay revenues revert to the Treasury at year’s end—they go on a spending spree before the close of the fiscal year, leaving no balance in its capital or development fund to roll over for the next year.

Consequently, although millions of pesos enter the barangay’s treasury regularly—of which very few constituents are aware—each year ends virtually with zero balance and little or nothing to show by way of economic or social Return-On-Investment.

When the New Year begins, the spending cycle resumes again with no real dividends or benefit to the community except for providing livelihood, improved lifestyles, and privileges to the officials.

All this is such a pity because unlike commercial corporations, the barangay corporation is guaranteed never to go bankrupt no matter how badly managed, no matter how its assets are dissipated, no matter how much of its revenues are stolen or misappropriated. It will live on as along as government collects taxes!

Consequently, today’s barangay governments are little more than convenient nesting places for petty officials who can’t make a living on their own. In turn they attract other political parasites that conspire on behalf of the Big Trapos to corner the votes and the resources of the grassroots community in order to control elections and perpetuate political dynasties on all levels.

The real tragedy in all this misgovernance, mismanagement, corruption, and impunity is the apathy, neglect, and truancy of the middle and upper classes—including sanctimonious professionals and church officials who, relying on admonitions but secure in their compounds and high-walled enclaves, surrender the actual governing of the community to the ambitious, the incompetent, or the corrupt.

An Economy

Barangays possess the essential elements of an economy: land, labor, and capital. Except in the poblacion, barangays typically comprise several square kilometers—open or forested, coastal or hinterland, hilly or flatland. And all have economic development potential including tourism.

Its labor force includes citizens engaged in the arts and crafts, professions, avocations, and other productive occupations. Numerous opportunities for livelihood, for employment, for welfare, or for poverty reduction would arise if they would only participate in planning or collaborate in developing their communal assets and opportunities, developing the local resources, human and non-human.

It is part of the Barangay Chairman’s duty to mobilize all sectors, to involve them in the barangay’s development, and to provide incentives so that all will contribute their talent and resources for the common good. And it is incumbent upon every citizen to strive to participate, cooperate, and help develop his own community’s potentials, as is proper for a stakeholder thereof.

Apart from revenues derived from its share of taxes and collections, this local economy’s capital includes the wealth and holdings of its residents including the “sweat equity” of its poor. But the general failure to mobilize/consolidate the sectors of this local economy prevents the proper utilization of its capital and expand its common wealth.

A barangay with weak/unproductive economy cannot duly contribute to a strong national economy. The Gross National Product (GNP), after all, is nothing but the aggregate of the Gross Barangay Product (GBP) of the nation’s 42,028 barangay economies. This explains why despite the rosy statistics regularly trotted out by the central government, we still have a sluggish national economy.

Let us manage this economy productively. It will more surely grow and expand the economic pie and assure prosperity for all citizens, especially at grassroots. There’s no reason why it can’t since the barangay is empowered to call on experts of both local and external institutions—financial houses, research agencies, foundations, institutes, and universities—for its planning needs.

But neither the government nor the people of the barangay—especially the professionals, and the technologically-endowed, are attentive. They leave their community to fend for itself as if it were possible to develop anything on auto-pilot.

In consequence, this small barangay republic-government-corporation-economy produces little benefit except for its officials, their families, and the political bosses who rely upon them to corner and manipulate the votes in their neighborhoods.

It’s what happens when sovereign citizens are inattentive and truant in their civic duty.

Government is everybody’s business; you can’t expect good governance if you’re not involved!