Chair of PH richest barangay running unopposed again

POSH VILLAGE The building of Barangay Bel-Air in Makati City, the country’s richest barangay, sits in the middle of the village.—DEXTER CABALZA

Constancia “Nene” Lichauco will head the richest barangay in the country for three more years.

The 79-year-old Lichauco is running unopposed again during this year’s barangay elections as the chair of Barangay Bel-Air in Makati City. She also had no opponents for the post in the last barangay elections in October 2013.

Still campaigning

She, however, still goes around the swanky gated communities of Bel-Air Village and Salcedo Village to campaign for her seven councilors and the Sangguniang Kabataan under her team.

According to the Makati Commission on Elections, there were only two barangay councilor candidates opposing her roster.

The barangay hall of Bel-Air—a two-story white building with an elevator—sits in the middle of the posh Bel-Air Village.

Instead of trooping to the nearest public schools to vote,  Bel-Air residents cast their votes inside the air-conditioned basketball court beside the barangay hall.

Home of the old rich of Makati, Bel-Air is also the country’s richest barangay, earning an annual gross income of P188 million in 2017.

In 2016, the barangay posted an income of P196 million—slightly higher than Metro Manila’s lone municipality of Pateros with P189 million.

A big chunk of Bel-Air’s income comes from its share of real property tax, which reached P155 million last year.

Besides the gated villages of Bel-Air Village and Salcedo Village, the barangay is one of the four enclaves comprising the Makati Central Business District, the country’s financial center.