A glimpse of rural barangay governance
The highly urbanized City of Cebu has 30rural barangays where trees instead of gilded concrete jungles still dominate the landscape. After an hour’s ride amid the hustle and bustle of city life, one can be transported to a still serene environment, cooler air and visible mountain ranges.
“Twenty-three of the city’s 80 barangays are totally or partially located in the four watershed areas,” known as the Central Cebu Protected Landscape (CCPL). The metropolis that we think we know has “76.3 percent of its land covered under the Nipas or Nationally Integrated Protected Areas System. These include the Mananga, Kotkot and Lusaran watersheds, the Central Cebu National Park, Sudlon National Park and Cebu Watershed Reservation (Buhisan). The four watersheds are considered important sources of water for Cebu City and the rest of Metro Cebu.” (www.cebucity.gov.ph/about-cebu-city)
Senior students of the University of Cebu College of Law (UC) recently chose to make their weekend especially memorable by visiting residents in four mountain barangays of Cebu City, with two local government units selected from each district. They launched Kaalam 2011 under UC’s “Popularizing the Law” Program. It envisions to bring the law closer to the people. Students share their knowledge of relevant legal issues through three modules which they crafted, focusing on basic human rights, responsible voting and katarungang pambarangay. The project was designed to help narrow the alarming gap between law and justice.
Indeed, the law is meaningless to our children, women and men if they do not even know their human rights and responsibilities as citizens. The law is insignificant if people lack the understanding and appreciation that it is the tie that binds us together to make our planet livable, sustainable and peaceful.
Absent such knowledge, the law is irrelevant to a woman who was brought up to think of herself as a chattel, subject to the whims and caprices of her family and society. It appears useless to a man treated as an instrument to perpetuate fraud and anomalies before, during and after elections. It is definitely of no help to a child who is kept in perpetual ignorance about sexuality, values and her rights, the knowledge of which should have been her armor to protect her from predators of the world just waiting to pounce on her innocence. The law is certainly insignificant to a public official who is spared from sanctions for not implementing it just because he is affiliated with the so-called “influential” in government and with callous institutions pretending to be helpless about it.
When the future lawyers started to plan Kaalam 2011, little did they imagine that they (and their professor) would learn more than what they thought they could impart to the residents. They gained knowledge that text books in law courses like Legal Ethics and Political Law cannot hope to encapsulate, such as learning from engagement with stakeholders and realizing that capacity building for both local officials and constituents is a huge challenge. There is so much to learn and to do for the rule of law to be a living principle that guides behaviors and decision-making of stakeholders in our country.
The events were a learning adventure as they gave a glimpse of the state of our governance and our ecosystems, among which are:
1. While providing millions of urbanites with their daily source of precious water, the host mountain barangays do not even have their own safe water distribution system. Dark water tubes were ubiquitous in the skyline. I was wondering if these tubes, with their built-in chemical components, do not contaminate the drinking water. Our lawmakers and local executives would be more appreciated if they ensure that each household in their district has access to clean and safe water, a basic human right.
2. There are still officials who are clueless on the barangay’s primary role and responsibilities. One admitted that he does not know about the Local Government Code, as the bible for local governance. Instead of providing uniforms and perks to officials, the supervising LGU should capacitate barangays through orientation on local governance and require that a copy of the Code be in the offices and, if possible, that barangays be connected to the Internet, with their own websites. A Citizen’s Charter should be posted and made visible to the public.
3. The wars of political warlords are a barrier to good governance, especially in barangays. The local chief executive is hesitant to be visible in programs of the political foe because of the perceived consequences come election time. Moratorium on politics might be easier said than done. But recurring disasters and global financial woes make it imperative that the framework of good governance, rather than crazy political games, guide the decisions of stakeholders. We can no longer deny that we are one of the most vulnerable countries to disasters, lagging behind other countries in Southeast Asia like Vietnam and Indonesia in global competitiveness due to corruption and inefficiency.
4. On a brighter note, there are now spaces for information and reading centers in barangays. We commend Bonbon barangay head Alex Ibarita Sr. for being a very accommodating host. Barangay Bonbon was a beehive of activity, with simultaneous workshops on how to make the barangay child-friendly and a job fair plus the Kaalam 2011 seminar. We thank the other barangays as well.
As we took the trip back to the UC campus last Saturday, we saw the landslide hit areas and chocolate colored waters in rivers and waterfalls—clear signs of erosion. We encountered a truckload of stones presumably from a quarry site. Disturbing changes are visible as more concrete structures are beginning to mushroom.
While sadly viewing the threatened ecosystems, someone asked me if I wanted to buy a piece of land in the watershed area. Obviously, she did not know that these are inalienable public lands and human settlements, with their negative impacts, are not encouraged in these fragile ecosystems.
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RELEASE THE CROC. The crocodile Lolong should be in his habitat, the conditions of which no human can ever hope to replicate. By keeping him captive in a concrete water enclosure in Bunawan town, Agusan del Sur province, we are maltreating him.
The anthropocentric mentality of humans as rulers of the world is at its worst, yet, our enforcers are allowing it.
We committed to obey the Constitution and respect the laws and the international conventions on biodiversity and habitat conservation and protection. We have to.
