A library in every barangay? Let’s do it in QC, says councilor
Whatever happened to the 19-year-old law requiring the establishment of reading centers in every barangay?
A Quezon City councilor said it was about time the local government—which recently enacted two major revenue-generating measures in the form of an annual garbage fee and a 10-percent increase in business taxes—gave enough attention and funding to the promotion of literacy in the grassroots.
Councilor Franz Pumaren of the city’s 3rd District noted that although there was already an existing law for the establishment of municipal or city libraries and barangay reading centers nationwide, not every village in Quezon City had complied.
Local level
Pumaren cited Republic Act No. 7743 or “An Act Providing for the Establishment of Congressional, City and Municipal Libraries and Barangay Reading Centers throughout the Philippines,” which mandates national agencies, specifically the National Library and the Department of the Interior and Local Government, to establish more public libraries in the local level.
It was signed into law in June 1994 and was supposed to have been completely implemented within five years after its approval.
Having a library in every barangay would help promote the reading habit among Quezon City residents, Pumaren stressed in a draft ordinance seeking the setup of reading centers in all of the city’s 142 barangays.
P300K budget
The ordinance allots a P300,000 budget per barangay and requires a reading center to offer a wide range of books and audio-visual learning materials prescribed by the Department of Education.
For its continued operation, a barangay reading center should be given a share of the collected fees for barangay permits and other local government revenues, it added.
Pumaren also proposed that the city government forge an agreement with the National Library for a fresh supply of books each year.
According to 2013 data from the Quezon City government website, the city of 3.1 million has a literacy rate of 98.32 percent.
