Beggars no more

Uriel C. Quilinguing .

BARANGAYS used to be helpless and mendicant as their forerunners in 1974, the year the barrios were renamed through a presidential decree. They were the country’s smallest political units, but their officials were powerless since they were virtual political puppets; they had no resources and authorities to govern.

Today, since the passage of the Local Government Code of 1991 (Republic Act No. 7160), many barangays have become self-sufficient and self-sustaining local government units. Barangay officials, consisting of the barangay chairperson, barangay council members, including the Sangguniang Kabataan leaders, and Lupong Tagapayapa members are persons of authority.

At the village level, they know better than anybody else.

One of the powers a village chief or punong barangay could exercise, and that he has sole authority, is to order the closure of a street.

Last Wednesday, Bugo barangay chairman Vic Talingting called on City Hall to place his village under a state of calamity in the wake of destruction caused by flood on Monday, when some 139 families either had lost or left their houses.

Talingting said their hands are tied; they cannot utilize their five-percent calamity fund unless the city government declare a state of calamity on their barangay. Really?

We understand there are guidelines in the declaration of state of calamity, that at least one of the seven criteria, must be met so that the local government unit could be placed under such. And once in place, 30 percent of the five percent the Local Disaster Risk Reduction Management Fund of the barangay can be utilized.

Seven conditions were stipulated and that any of them would suffice as basis for the state of calamity declaration, among them were that “at least 15% of the population were affected, that at least 30% of the means of livelihood were affected, that damage to critical and lifeline infrastructures and facilities were evident.”

These were contained in a five-page Memorandum Order No. 60, series of 2019 that national defense secretary Delfin N. Lorenzana, who also chairs the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, issued July 17, this year.

The 30 percent of the LDRRMF, which is called the quick response fund, must be readily made available during calamities and upon the recommendation of the Barangay Development Council, the barangay chairperson may place the entire under the state of calamity, subject to the confirmation of the City Council.

This is based on an opinion from the Department of Interior and Local Government  Legal Service issued Nov. 28, 2011 that the “Sangguniang barangay may declare a barangay under a state of calamity upon recommendation of the BDC for purposes of utilizing the 30% of the 5% LDRRMF allocated as quick response fund.”

Clearly, the barangay system of governance has already been empowered and their leaders must assert their authority so that they could use the quick response funds, thus ensure living conditions in areas stricken by disasters, calamities, epidemics, or complex emergencies, may be normalized as quickly as possible.

Most barangays today are self-sustaining and self-reliant units of governance.

(Cagayan de Oro was the first local government in the country to rename barrios to barangays in 1973, the year the city subdivided its poblacion or urban area into 40 barangays. Since a barrio was then headed by a capitan del barrio, heads of barangays, who were at first appointed, were also called barangay captains.)           

(Uriel C. Quilinguing is a former president of the Cagayan de Oro Press Club. He used to be an editor in chief of this paper after a stint with the Department of Interior and Local Government regional office VII as local government officer.)