Wednesday, October 24, 2007 Speak out: Gising Barangay Movement By Lorenzo M. de la Serna Lapu-Lapu City
IN pre-historic times, the word barangay referred to big boats Malay settler-families used to cross the seas.
It was their home while sailing.
When they reached our shores, their settlement became known as barangay.
The barangays grew into regular villages that Spanish colonizers called barrio and its smaller unit sitio, terms that endured through the American period.
During World War II (1942-1945), the Japanese occupation government created “neighborhood associations” to handle tasks such as identifying individuals, food rationing, and forced labor.
Renamed purok after the war, the neighborhood associations were the forerunners of the modern barangay.
After declaring Martial Law, President Marcos issued PD 557 mandating that the barrio be renamed barangay and become the primary unit of government.
He touted it as “the backbone of grassroots democracy” or baranganic democracy.
This was not to be so, for under his regime the barangay was used as a democratic façade for one-man rule.
The adoption of the “Freedom Constitution” by President Aquino in 1986, and the enactment of a new Local Government Code in 1991, the barangay came under the control of traditional politicians who perpetuated themselves in power, using incompetent and corrupt barangay officials as willing tools.
To reform that trapo-dominated system, it is imperative that Filipinos reclaim their sovereign power and return public officials to their proper places—as public servants.
Structure
As a government unit, the barangay has three branches: executive (chairman), legislative (Sangguniang Barangay) and judiciary (Lupon Tagapayapa).
All branches are headed by the chairman, thus no separation of powers as in parliamentary system.
This barangay has power to tax, police power and power of eminent domain.
Its supreme governing body is the Barangay Assembly, a local parliament whose membership comprises the entire electorate, with power to sanction or recall officials for loss of confidence.
It is a parliament except in name—which explains why its head is called chairman, or “little prime minister,” not captain, which denotes “little president” or “little commander-in-chief.”
The chairman presides over his peers as “first among equals” unlike a captain who commands troopers.
As a corporation, the barangay represents or manages the interests of its stakeholders: the constituents.
But the officials manage mainly politics instead of economics.
As an economy, the barangay has land, labor and capital.
It has territory of square kilometers, with open and forested areas, coastal or hilly sites, and idle lands suitable for economic activities including tourism.
Its work force includes people of all arts and crafts, professions, avocations or productive occupations.
But many suffer from lack of attention, opportunity or leadership.
This local economy is thus moribund for the most part, unable to contribute to the national economy.
Alliance
The Gising Barangay Movement is a nationwide alliance of Filipinos who wish to do the little things that together make up the big things in the nation.
It believes in the social, political and economic development of the barangay as a precondition to genuine national progress.
Its development requires that there be wide participation in its governance, so that Filipinos may develop a deeper sense of community—without which there can be no consensus, solidarity, progress, or stability.
Accordingly, the Movement shall strive to a) awaken the barangay’s sovereign citizens so they may learn to assert it in positive ways for their own betterment; b) develop the capability of the barangay as basic unit of the nation’s economy); and c) establish a genuine “government of the people, by the people and for the people” in every community.
