All about the money

While visiting the land of durian, pomelo and mangosteen, I discovered that there has been an impromptu migration to Davao City of politicians and businessmen who are all trying to get away from the financially draining politics of barangay elections.

Within hours of our arrival, I learned that several congressmen, governors, mayors and business magnates around Mindanao decided to hole up in Davao City before they lose so much money due to last minute requests for election funds from candidates in need of money to pay poll watchers and leaders.

Veteran politicians have also expressed bewilderment and disbelief at how barangay elections have become commercialized, politicized, and expensive. One Congressman could not get over the amount of tarpaulins, billboards and motorcades that have been mounted by candidates for barangay councilors as well as barangay captains all over the Philippines.

Unfortunately, in spite of all their warnings the COMELEC was overwhelmed and in no position to address violations such as over spending and other forms of campaign violations.

To emphasize the intensity and desperation of this once “neighborhood-based” elections, media has reported approximately 47 murders or homicides that occurred under a shorter campaign period for positions that were once just a matter of prestige rather than power.

Today’s barangay elections is no longer about service and prestige. It is all about the money, millions and millions of it. Since the barangays got their own IRA or internal revenue allotment as well as the power to legislate barangay based taxation and infrastructure development, so much abuse has occurred, not to mention corruption.

People don’t kill people for prestige, but they do so for money.

Given what has happened in the last election, a number of mayors, governors and even former legislators around the country are united in suggesting that the system should be overhauled the same way Vice President Jejomar Binay has said so.

This of course would also be aligned with the suggestion of Sen. Edgardo Angara who also wants to scrap the Sangguniang Kabataan or barangay based political machinery for the youth. Sen. Angara has accurately voiced many views that the youth should be concentrating on their learning and not be unnecessarily exposed to the corrupt world of politics.

The collective opinion at the impromptu Davao forum is for mayors to be given the authority to once again have the power to appoint barangay captains so we can be spared the insanity and excess of campaigns as well as the eventual acts of corruption committed to recover their expenses.

Being appointees would also make the barangay captains directly accountable to the mayors and this in turn would synchronize development projects and budgets from the city down to the barangay level.

Under this proposal, the barangay council and councilors can be dismantled and all legislative requirements can be tackled by city or town councils thereby putting a stop to the redundancy or duplication of functions.

As one former Congressman put it, city or town ordinances also apply to barangays, so why do we need a second level of people to make ordinances? What many also miss out is the fact that barangay elections are so divisive and disruptive of community relations.

If the idea requires a lot of work or time, a quick fix that was also suggested is for Congress to standardize the compensation package of barangay officials so that all barangay officials will have the same salary.

Rather than spend millions of pesos on barangay kagawad(s) or councilors, the money would be better spent on improving the pay and perks of barangay functionaries such as barangay tanod(s) whose lives are often at risk in protecting the community and when typhoons or earthquakes occur, they are the ones out there exposed to the hazards.

Aside from tanod(s), we should be paying real salaries to barangay health workers and teachers at barangay day care centers who render real services, many of whom walk long distances to serve their constituents.

President Noynoy and his crew have not had the time or reason to investigate the compensation packages that barangay officials reward themselves with, but there is reason to believe that P-Noy would discover something equally scandalous and anomalous as the perks and pay they unearthed in government owned and controlled corporations.

As an example, Congress or the DILG should investigate how much money has been misspent for so-called “Lakbay-Aral” or study tours where barangay officials go on trips using barangay funds. I was even told by a national official that in some cases so-called treasurers or barangay secretaries are actually girlfriends of certain barangay captains. This is what we call government sponsored “honeymoons”.

A more serious concern about misappropriation has to do with having too much money with very little official use.

Imagine how many barangays all over the country are actually hosts or have a business district or a commercial complex within their territory, these in turn receive a portion of the taxes collected from those business districts. In one case a barangay in Makati reportedly receives P250 million as their IRA.

Those highly developed commercial areas are also self-sustaining in terms of roads, security etc. So many such barangays can actually receive hundreds of millions but have no real “need” or project to spend the money on.

So as a result, rather than revert the money to the national treasury, they will almost certainly create, make or manufacture projects and programs that will cause the money to stay in a barangay as well as in the pockets of some barangay officials.

After all the time and effort we spent going after corrupt presidents and Cabinet members, it seems that an even deeper and more damaging form of corruption has long existed in our own backyards.

It is time to clean up the mess. Lets change the local government code.