The crucial role of barangays in the life of the nation, specifically in protecting our rights to life, health, livelihood and environment, is sadly underestimated.
Imagine if over more than 40000 barangays in the country are self-reliant and are able to mobilize and inspire their constituents, like some in fact do, to be engaged stakeholders in governance, the quality of life of our people and their future will be far better than what it is now.
We will have more citizens satisfied of the government, as barangay is the face of government at the community level. We will have healthier, not deteriorating, ecosystems, as people are expected to have that sense of ownership over the common goods such as our oceans, forests and open spaces and readily report violations of our laws to authorities and culturally “isolate” the violators for their misdeeds.
If only more barangay officials look at themselves as not just adjuncts of local chief executives at the higher level, and not be involved in the games of politics, but as partners in nation-building.
If only barangays would unhesitatingly coordinate with national agencies such as the Department of Health, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Department of Agriculture, the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, TESDA, to mention a few, for technical assistance in providing health and sanitation services, protection of the environment, livelihood, and have updated data base of the residents, not to mention ecological profile and geographical hazards, have road maps for resources management, with a genuinely functioning Barangay Development Council (BDC), as the gateway of public participation in decision-making.
Barangays are undeniably the most important local government unit as they are the primary planning and implementing arm of government policies, plans, programs, projects and activities in the community. Such a heavy responsibility requires a core team, in each barangay, of competent and ethical leaders with tons of EQ, and of utmost importance, commitment and dedication.
But, who cares who run for barangay posts and get elected or who are BDC members? The focus has been the politics at the municipal, city, provincial and national levels.
We, the people, are partly the culprit as we do not care to establish relationships with our barangays nor do we share our knowledge or even a teeny-weeny bit of our time in helping effect the delivery of basic services to the people. We detach ourselves from governance and when errors of judgment happen, as they do, we readily heap the blame on authorities. It is the easiest thing to do but it is most unfortunate.
Because barangay officials are not generally looked upon as accountable for dereliction of duties, in failing to perform their mandates, the feeling of complacency pervades the governance landscape. As a vivid illustration, the continuing non-segregation of biodegradable and recyclable solid wastes is a shameful habit, by itself an indication of gross failure by barangays, as principal implementors, in enforcing the law, RA 9003, the Ecological Solid Waste Management Law.
Has the supervising mayor or the DENR taken the barangays to task for their serious omission and neglect? Have citizens sent a Notice to Sue to their barangay leaders and sued them for failure to prohibit the ecologically devastating habit?
Until our government agencies or concerned citizens exercise political will and hold accountable our public officials, our environmental rights will continue to be violated and the health of our ecosystems will continue to deteriorate.
But, on a happy note, it is heartening to know that there are also barangay champions who realize their key role as decision-makers in protecting their constituents’ rights to a good quality of life and a healthy environment. We can cite the example of barangay Luz in Cebu City which used economic tools to help effect a sustainable environmental program. The barangay made ‘Kwarta sa Basura’ (Treasures in Trash) a model of a viable life-enhancing environmental program. It provided livelihood to unemployed males and made women enthusiastic entrepreneurs from recycling materials and composting biodegradables. It even entered into a partnership with the private sector, Cebu Holdings, Inc., which has embarked on sustainable projects as part of their corporate social responsibility program.
This month, four barangays in Metro Manila —with the cleanest, healthiest and best practices in solid-waste management—won and received P1-million worth of livelihood products each from the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA). Among the winners in the Barangay Power 2014 are Barangay Holy Spirit (Category A) and Barangay Blue Ridge B (Category D) both in Quezon City, as well as Barangay Fort Bonifacio (Category B) in Taguig City and Barangay New Zuñiga (Category C) in Mandaluyong City.
Barangay Power is an MMDA Program that aims to motivate all barangays in Metro Manila to implement the provisions of the Republic Act [RA] 9003, or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000.
We hope similar incentives will be given to those barangays who are doing their best to fulfill the mandates of environmental protection in Cebu and Visayas region.
For those who are proving themselves laggards, accountability measures should already be initiated. It is in fact long overdue.
Perhaps the Office of the Environmental Ombudsman will start to be visible in this aspect?