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Barangay
officials were made to undergo an orientation seminar on Barangay
Governance last week. Every barangay official, including appointed
ones had to attend. Even those in their third term were not
spared. Discussed were their functions, duties and responsibilities.
There are those who really need to undergo this course and
there are some who do not really need it. This is because;
barangay officials are composed of a wide spectrum of society
ranging from those scarcely lettered to retirees from government
service.
The
latter could just be given hand out materials and they could
be able to handle things required of a barangay official.
They have been in this work for a lifetime.
They
only have to know the finer points of barangay governance.
Yet there are those who grew up in a different game. Some
of them had not even managed a family or run a general store.
If those who had experienced in the service will be exempted,
some of the neophytes would say; attend and tell me what was
discussed. Then it would only be the barangay secretary and
the treasurer who would be asked by the barangay authorities
to attend. So everyone must be compelled to go.
William
Shakespeare once said, one cannot make a silken purse out
of a sow's ear.
This
is and outlandish statement, which could not be taken either
figuratively or literally. In the Philippines, pig's ears
are made into sisig. Besides, there are people that would
not touch pork from a sow even at the point of a gun. What
the English poet is trying to say that one cannot make and
item of art from a different material. In the present situation,
one cannot just make a functional government official out
of everyone within two or three days. There are those who
need a month or even a year, or even a lifetime.
As
we say, barangay officials come from all walks of life. There
are those who try to make a living as an official in the most
basic Local Government Unit. Maybe they cannot find work anywhere
else. There are those who want to bask in the aura of glory,
which attends an elective official even of the lowest kind.
There are those who want the barangay to be a better place
to live for themselves and their children. And there are those
who would want the wealth of their knowledge and experience
to be of use still.
Of
those four, the first two are the dangerous ones. They assume
the mantle of omniscience even if they come across it vicariously.
They are good campaigners but usually bad administrators.
What is sad is that as good campaigners they occupy more important
positions, even if they always have to ask directions to the
barangay hall. They lord it over those under them. To keep
them away from the Ombudsman, Municipal Local Government Operations
Officers have to flatter, cajole or threaten so they would
toe the line.
But
this is democracy. The system may be flawed but it is the
best system as of now until replaced by a better one. We had
been trying to interest people, the qualified ones to run
for office but they refused. Barangay governance is too much
of a hassle. It is a thankless job, with low pay and with
indeterminate working hours. It offers plenty of chances of
getting choked while in session like one barangay captain
- punong barangay this time - or being haled before the Ombudsman
like another barangay captain -er punong barangay - for preventing
a constituent from extracting sand from the seashore.
We
had also been advocating the election of only the qualified,
the willing ones that is but we have been anathematized as
an elitist. In a representative democracy, the masses must
be represented. In the barangay of the blind, the punong barangay
must be one eyed. Perhaps the best solution is to seminar
the incompetents to death while leaving the running of the
barangay to those who know how to handle things. Amen.
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