Need For New Blood In Barangays, SK

Philippine Daily Inquirer

October 30, 2023

Today is a good day to take stock of our complicated relationship with our basic
government unit, the barangay, and its youth arm, the Sangguniang Kabataan (SK), as
millions of voters descend on precincts to elect their community leaders for the next three
years.

It’s a complicated relationship for a number of reasons, chief of which is the yawning
disconnect between what the barangay and the SK represent in theory—nonpartisan
public service at the grassroots level—and what they often are in practice—a breeding
ground for corruption and patronage.

Let’s consider a few examples: In June 2018, the chair and two councilors in a Caloocan
barangay were found guilty of graft over anomalies in the procurement of supplies.

In September 2020, 89 village chiefs were suspended for irregularities in the distribution
of pandemic cash aid. In May 2021, the Sandiganbayan upheld the conviction on
corruption charges of a barangay chair in Manila for taking out personal loans in the
barangay’s name.

Many SK officials are apparently learning from their elders.

An August 2013 study by scholars from Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of

Technology Philippines found that SK officials in Iligan City were aware of the forms of
graft and corrupt practices under the law. “However … most of them admitted to have
been involved in any of the following irregular acts: malversation of public funds,
evasion of public bidding in the purchase of supplies and equipment, forgery, bribery,
making ghost projects and payrolls, abuse of powers, among others,” the study found.

Corruption within the SK, according to the study, stems mainly from bureaucratic
dysfunctions “especially in the delay of budget releases and political socialization with
older and corrupt barangay officials who passed on the techniques of corruption to the
young leader informants.”

Let’s take a moment to ask why: Is it because these political sub-groupings are a
microcosm of the government itself, thereby reflecting all the ills of our rotten political
system and its dynasties? Or because the system is so conducive to misbehavior that it
births bad barangay or SK heads who then go on to become bad mayors, governors, or
presidents?
We understand that it’s unfair to paint all 42,027 barangay councils and an equal number
of SK with the same brush, as many of them may actually hold true to the original vision
for village and youth empowerment under the Local Government Code of 1991.

The Code states that the barangay “serves as the primary planning and implementing unit
of government policies, plans, programs, projects, and activities in the community, and as
a forum wherein the collective views of the people may be expressed, crystallized and
considered, and where disputes may be amicably settled.”

It is our court of first resort, where troublemakers are brought, or, as the vernacular goes,
“ipina-barangay,” to talk it out, as the neighborhood bears witness so that matters are kept
out of the police station or the prosecutor’s office.

Of course, the barangay and the SK have other functions. Basic services from the national
government are delivered through them. They may also launch their own projects, like
street cleanups or medical missions.

Today’s election promises to be a well-attended one, one of the few things the Filipino
electorate can be counted on consistently. The Commission on Elections expects a 75-
percent turnout of 67.8 million voters registered to vote in the barangay elections and
23.25 million in the SK polls.

Some 1.4 million candidates are running, 96,962 of them for barangay chair, and 92,774
for SK chair. But the campaigning has grown so heated in some places that the Philippine
National Police has validated 26 poll-related acts of violence, including at least eight
killed and seven wounded. Some 361 barangays have been tagged as areas of grave
concern.

One wonders why people would go to such extreme lengths for local posts that don’t
even pay a regular salary but a modest honorarium. Assuming funds are available,
barangay chairs get about P33,000 under Salary Grade 14 while other members and the
SK chairs, around P22,000 under Salary Grade 10.

But more disturbing is the fact that some 27,500 candidates are running unopposed.

Either these areas are so firmly in the grip of the dynasties in power that any competition
is stifled, or there’s so little interest or ambition among the people to serve and shepherd
their own communities.

This is unfortunate because, despite their failings and dysfunctions, the barangay and the
SK remain important platforms for a new breed of public servants disenchanted by how
they are being governed to step into politics themselves, propelled by patriotism and a
hankering for change.