BRGY & SK ELECTIONS 2010: Ensuring Good Governance in the Grassroots

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ATENEO SCHOOL ON GOOD GOVERNANCE Conference

by Ambassador Henrietta T. de Villa

Monday 27 September 2010

9:00 AM to 12 Noon

Oakwood, Ortigas Center

Pasig City

Magandang umaga po.

Every Sunday is family day for us.  Our children and grandchildren all gather together in what they call “casa solariega”  or ancestral home, the home they grew up in.  Still exuberant about the great victory of Ateneo over FEU, Ateneo being the school of all the boys in our family, even a daughter after it became co-ed, they burst into song after dinner.  When it was about 10:00 PM the time for good-byes till next Sunday, 2 of our girls said the last song is for Dad and Mom. And part of the song . . . “Sunrise sunset, sunrise sunset, swiftly go the years, one season following another, laden with happiness and tears”.

Before my computer, after the children had gone, that refrain came back to my mind as I was trying to gather my thoughts on the Barangay and SK elections for our gathering this morning. . . subconsciously substituting the seasons for elections . . . one election following another, laden with happiness and tears.

Our happiness about the last elections, the first fully automated nationwide polls in our country and in the world, has not yet been fully appreciated and savored, our tears not yet fully dried . . . and we are breathless again preparing for the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections just less than a month away.  Does it help, the frequency of our elections?  Does it help, conferences like this when we talk and analyze to pieces what were good, if any at all about the last elections, what went wrong in it, the wrongs almost always outnumbering the good. 

Is our country better off with so many elections? Has the crucible of crisis for our country, especially for our poor passed away? Are we now drinking from the cup of salvation? If only we had the time, it might be good to gather some like minded people in a space of solitude conducive to reflecting and meditating on what to do in order for our elections to hit the winning combination for our people and country, to sustain our people’s interest and engagement in responsible citizenship and good governance, to help candidates imbibe a servant-leader nature and when elected live justly, love tenderly, walk humbly with our people and our God.

For PPCRV we are putting on red alert mode our original two-fold programs for the 25 October polls:

-       Voters’ Education –

• with focus on what the barangay is
• what the people in a given barangay can really do to build up their community
• what type of barangay leaders they really need for the type of community they want
•  to emphasize as the 1^st order of preparing for the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan the need for community solidarity towards an environment of peace in their barangay
• to conduct candidates forum always capped with the signing of a peace covenant
•  to organize prayer activities for CHAMP elections
  

-       Pollwatching –

• with focus on re-orienting the volunteers on monitoring a manual system of elections
• scrutinize the Computerized Voters List (given by the Comelec to PPCRV as its accredited Citizen’s Arm) for possible illegal registrants
• post the CVL in the parishes and actively get the voters interested to check their names and their respective clustered polling precincts
•  police their ranks from partisan infiltrators
• report immediately violations on the non-partisanship of the electoral process and on total gun ban and cancellation of security personnel of politicians that threaten peace and order

What is the significance of the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan in nation building, authentic democracy, and the citizens’ principled participation in good governance?  PPCRV always tries to break up these principal elements into bite-size pieces for the chosen sectors we reach out to: the poor and the youth, and persons with disabilities.  They  are usually the disadvantaged and even exploited during elections, and yet they comprise the majority of our voters. That is the reason that for every election we create a tag. For the 25 October polls it is:

Barangay – Unang Hirit sa Wastong Pamahalaan

Kabataan – Unang Hakbang sa Bagong Kinabukasan

The Barangay is the basic unit of government, the Barangay being the grassroots. It is the first and immediate place where ordinary people living in a given Barangay experience a sense of belonging, a sense of being cared for and being safe in the concreteness of their daily life.  It is in the Barangay that connectivity with government must be on the seeing, hearing, touching level.  A connectivity that is reciprocal between the people of the Barangay and the Barangay leaders whom they have chosen through their votes to govern them wisely and well.  Good governance is first tested, developed and practiced in the Barangay.  And democracy which is the rule of the people is born and bred in the Barangay.

While the Sangguniang Kabataan is the first and immediate space where young people begin to understand, appreciate and experience that an election is not a business transaction, nor a power grab opportunity.  Rather, the youth in their involvement in the SK (as voters and as candidates) must be led to realize that it is a mission for summoning a new and different future where all can recognize, reach out  and call each other as brother and sister, especially the poor.

It is lamentable – talagang nakakalungkot at nakakapundi na ang Barangay at Sangguniang Kabataan eleksyon ay pinasukan na ng mali at walang kahihiyang pamumulitika.  How rabid partisan vested interest politics has infiltrated the Barangay Elections, sad too, the SK.  Barangay officials, especially the Barangay Captain or Chairman, are often the ward leaders of local government officials, particularly the Mayor.  This exacerbates the evil that is vote buying which is systematically being embedded in the grassroots. It is not an exception anymore that Barangay officials, especially chairmen are wooed by politicians of local government, mayors, and members of the House of Representatives. They are dined, wined, womanized.  They are sponsored for trips to local resorts even to Hong Kong, depending on their influence in the barangay.  They are given expensive gifts like name brand watches.

When money becomes an electoral moving force, GOLD will acquire the GUNS and move the GOONS so that the GREED of ill-motivated politicians, especially with political dynasties to protect, promote and preserve, nothing is spared, even violence becomes the means to an end.  And already this is happening in the grassroots level. 

Even the SK has not been spared.  Rabid partisan politics has tentacles that keep on increasing, with coverage that expands and multiplies every electoral exercise.  We see political dynasties fielding their young sons and daughters, even their grandchildren, nieces and nephews as candidates for the SK. And they are equipped with money, a lot of money for enticing their peers. 

There is a book from the Ateneo press titled: “ Raiding, Trading, Feasting: The Political Economy of Philippine Chiefdom” which traces Filipino customs and practices from pre-Spanish times. Translated into the current flawed practice of politics: Raiding, Trading and Feasting have become the modern idols called   Power, Profit, Pleasure.  Habitual practice of these 3 Ps results in the relativism of Violence, Corruption, Confusion . . .  their democratization too. 

Can we do something about this dismal situation already eroding different aspects of our culture: the culture of elections; the culture of peace, the culture of truth.

I dare make some achievable resolutions and recommendations. . .

1.     Patient, persistent and unceasing education – political education in the grassroots beginning with the children and enfolding all ages of Filipinos across all social classes. Adopt the concept of sakop which enlarges the idea of self to include and embrace the community. Sakop ng aking pagmamalasakit ang aking pamilya, ang aking sambayanan, at ang pangkalahatang kabutihan ng lipunan.  Sakop ng Sangguniang Barangay ang tatlong sangay ng pamahalaan: Legislative, Executive, Judicial.   Image the Barangay according to its Malay root word, balayan meaning a boat. A boat will bring the people in it to their destination.  Kaya kailangan matibay ang barco, magaling ang kapitan ng barco, nagtutulungan ang mga nakasakay sa barco.  Education must promote, inform and inspire a downward shift of power.  From those on the top (actually a minority) who hold control of economic and socio-political power . . . to devolve this power to the masses.  Devolving participative governance to the grassroots, in effect is to harness “the wisdom of the crowd”. A strong base foundation assures a strong edifice in all its storeys.

2.     Activate and empower existing structures in the Barangay like . . .

• the Barangay Assembly (composed of all registered residents, at least 15 years old and Filipino citizens) . . . that it be convened regularly so as to initiate legislative processes by recommending to the Barangay Council the adoption of  measures for the well-being of the community; come up with ways and means for effective enforcement of laws; hear and pass the semestral report of the Sangguniang Barangay concerning the delivery of basic services and finances, especially the use of the IRA (this promotes / demands accountability and transparency from Barangay officials); for the diminution of crime and violence in the community, enact measures that call on law firms in the Barangay, as well as law students and law practitioners to render free legal assistance to the poor in said Barangay, including remote Barangays  so that the League of Barangays will have an active roster of lawyers nationwide rendering free legal service to the poor; move for the development and institutionalization of regular discourse between the Barangay residents and the Barangay Council
• Lupong Tagapamayapa . . . Peace  Council (composed of Punong Barangay and 10-20 appointees of the Punong Barangay) that the residents in the Barangay be regularly informed of its activities, decisions and programs since it is the first level guardian of the Rule of Law; takes care of dispute resolutions so as to facilitate settlement of cases at the Barangay level; gives the poor access to justice. The LT should be encouraged by the Barangay Assembly to initiate justice reforms that are participatory and to network with other Barangays to advocate for these in the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government. As documented by the study on Democratic Deficits in the Philippines, “develop peer to peer and office dialogue mechanisms for regular and collective analyses of crime cases and for information and experience sharing which includes clearly defining the barangay justice system.  The LT can also advocate for the removal of the politicization of the police, as well as define the role of the Barangay in policing. 
•  League of Barangays . . . to publish and disseminate the good news about best practices among the 42,025 Barangays nationwide.   

The cycle of unending elections, of forever choosing and electing serves a purpose, especially for a country like ours where crisis seems to build on crises.  I remember coming across the philosophy of a theologian on making choices.  Times of crisis like ours are not evening times, times for going to bed and sleeping off our problems.  Times of crisis are morning times, times to rise up and grab our weapons to battle off our bad times. 

For the PPCRV, the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections on 25 October are a golden moment to take up our arms for good governance in the grassroots.  Our signature weapons: Voters’ Education and Pollwatching for CHAMP – Clean Honest Accurate Meaningful Peaceful – Elections.

Ultimately for the PPCRV . . . CHAMP is CHRIST in our elections.

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