To the citizens of every barangay

Manny Valdehuesa

IT is time to awaken real People Power in our barangays.

Every one of us lives in the barangay. We are part of the grassroots. But we surrender its affairs to others. We let trapos dominate it. So local politics and economics are controlled by only a few; people with dubious motives, competence, or dedication to public service. Worse, too many of them are corrupt. They abuse power and misuse our common wealth. They buy the loyalty and support of people who don’t value their vote or who don’t pay taxes. They pamper those who don’t care about good governance as long as they get handouts and other favors. Do we care?

If we care, we would be seen in the barangay hall; we would attend barangay meetings; we would share ideas for local development; we would help identify problems and work out solutions. We would also apply our knowledge, our technology, our expertise, even our finances to develop our barangay. And we would work together to expand its economy, fight poverty, create jobs, and provide livelihood for the needy.

If we care, we would see to it that our own barangay’s revenues and budgets will yield benefits for everyone; not just for the officials and their political interests. But do we really care?

For example, on March 25^th, Saturday, our Barangay Assembly will convene —along with all other barangays (42,000+ in all). It will be the first time this year (last time was in October last year). But how many bother to attend? How many check whether the Assembly takes up the local residents’ interests, or the community’s agenda—and not the dictated agenda?

On March 25, unless we show up and take part in its proceedings, our Barangay Assembly will take place as usual: manipulated by officials who corner the votes of our poor neighbourhoods and ensure that the oligarchs and political dynasties will prevail year after year. That’s how they get to dominate politics and manipulate power and finances on all levels.

If you’ve ever attended a Barangay Assembly, note how the officials lord it over the occasion and dominate the proceedings. They give long-winded speeches and read self-serving reports. But the Assembly members—the sovereign people—are treated as if they’re mere spectators. It’s “their assembly” but all they can hope for is ask a question during an Open Forum at the tail-end of the program while their so-called “public servants” do all the talking.

No one seems to know or understand what the Barangay Assembly is all about. First, that it is a gathering of sovereign people—the bosses of all public servants, the voters who elect officials and authorize them to establish government. The Constitution refers to them as the people in whom state sovereignty resides and from whom all government authority emanates.

They are the actual constituents of our political system. So their gathering is quite literally a Constituent Assembly—more so than the one Congress convenes in order to amend the Constitution. (Senators and congressmen, after all, are mere representatives of the constituents.) But the bureaucracy has reduced their role as mere spectators. This has prevented barangay citizens from taking part in their Barangay Assembly in a meaningful way. Such a pity. This is about the only occasion where they can perform their governing role in the community’s direct democracy.

Yes, the barangay has a direct democracy. As such, every one of its citizens has the right to take part in its governance directly—proposing, crafting, or approving policy and programs for his community, disciplining errant officials, and so on.  But no one seems to know this.

As a result, local governance is dysfunctional, autonomy a joke. Yet the barangay has long been transformed into a small republic, with a full-fledged government (three branches, powers, resources, facilities, autonomy). During the 25 years since this was legislated, every citizen acquired a direct role in government. But this role has been bastardized. They’re mere spectators, not sovereign citizens. Manipulated by presumptuous public servants, they have no control over their government; they do not oversee its operations; they do not recall corrupt or incompetent officials. Autonomy is turned on its head by an oligarchy!

And so Filipinos remain clueless about self-government, ignorant of or ignoring the Local Government Code. They do not practice autonomy. Their powers as sovereign citizens are blithely arrogated by servants who fancy themselves as the masters. They do not oversee the government they create; they do not control the officials they vote into office. As for their expectations, they cannot compel fulfilment. It’s their public servants who reap most of the benefits of governing. They can’t even ensure transparency in official acts, hold errant officials accountable, or replace them.

It’s been a quarter-century since the law empowered them, but Filipinos do not assert their power, not even during their Barangay Assembly, which is institutionalized People Power. If the Barangay Assembly doesn’t deliberate formally, its sovereign members cannot their exercise power. It’s because individually, they are powerless. Their power lies in collective action. Just as congressmen and senators are powerless unless they convene in a formal session and pass resolutions and laws, so are citizens if they do not convene, deliberate, and act or decide collectively. It is during the session that motions and proposals are deliberated and acted on. In other words, decisions are made collegially—when the will of the people is expressed—and assume the force of law or a social contract. That’s the importance of the Barangay Assembly—as a legislative governing body. In other words, a parliament except in name.

Only when it is in session can its members perform their sovereign role. And because this is so, the people ought to be the Assembly’s main participants and discussants, not the officials. It is not an Assembly of the officials, but the constituents’. The constituents ought to be on center stage, therefore, with the chairman presiding but not dominating or manipulating the proceedings.

Unfortunately, this governing role of the people remains little understood or appreciated. Being literally a Constituent Assembly, it is powerful; it is the community’s supreme governing body. But it is belittled and manipulated from the top. The Local Government Code of 1991 (R.A. 7160) are never taken up or explained in the community. Little wonder that Filipinos are uninformed, and unempowered.

It is time the educated or elite sector of barangays (the so-called A & B crowd and the professionals) awake to their role as citizens. They are, or ought to be, the role models in our democracy. To attend and participate in the March 25^th Barangay Assembly and animate its deliberations may trigger the transformation of one’s community into a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.

Otherwise, governance at grassroots level will remain dysfunctional, and in thrall to the usual gang of trapos! Right-thinking Filipinos must take back their power now and install good governance in the small republic of the barangay. Carpe’ diem!

(Manuel E. Valdehuesa Jr. is the chairman and national convenor of the Gising Barangay Movement Inc.)