It’s About Time!
Representative Mauricio Domogan, who is on his 6th year as congressman after having served 3 terms as Mayor of Baguio, is backing the City Council’s move for the reduction of the number of barangays from a whopping 129 to just 47. AFTER AT LEAST 15 YEARS IN PUBLIC OFFICE, he finally realizes that most barangays in Baguio City do not meet the Philippine Local Government Code’s requirement of having at least 5,000 inhabitants.
All I can say is WOW! Some people cannot — or never really wanted to — do the math.
So now he’s calling on everyone to ‘cooperate,’ probably because the different barangays have not been able, or simply refuse, to submit their position papers to the council — hoping, I suppose, that these delaying tactics can go on to postpone next month’s plebiscite. These guys are cutting it too close to this October’s barangay elections. Imagine 80 little kings being asked to step down or share their power with others. Imagine local elections in Baguio getting less expensive. Imagine how much we have been spending on 80 extra barangays all this time!
The last national census in 2000 placed Baguio’s population at 250,000. Ever if the numbers are now closer to 300,000, that just merits 60 barangays at most. Didn’t anyone every notice this?
I’ve always found it odd that almost every hill in Baguio has an upper, lower and middle barangay, or that Greenwater Village which has only one access road (that is slightly wider than one lane) is a whole barangay and with its own jeepney line, too! And did you know that what the locals refer to as upper and lower Burgos streets are actually Gomez and Zamora? What’s the obsession these people have with upper, middle and lower anyway? Then there’s Pinsao Proper (which used to make me think, is there a Pinsao Improper?), Pinsao Pilot, Pinsao Extension.
And while we’re at it, can anyone tell me what other act of legislation Congressman Domogan has passed after six whole years in the House of Representatives other than renaming Park Drive to Nanoy Ilusorio Drive?
We have been bugged so much by barangay officials in the neighboring barangay because they wanted to put up a multi-purpose hall on the property we applied for that we had tax declaration for the last 32 years. It’s prime location for a sari-sari store.
Hay naku, there’s so much ‘milagro’ going on! the barangay captain in a condo i was staying in kept calling on all his ‘kababayans’ to squat on idle property in his area, the barangay captain of navy base issued a permit to construct a gasoline station on leonard wood beside mountain lodge even if the area is actually in m. roxas barangay, and now the navy base barangay is starting to clear an easement on c.m. recto road reserved for road widening to put up another ugly structure for a grocery. these people should be stopped! they have bad taste in buildings, to boot!
There must be a great catch in all the hullabaloo about downsizing the barangays.
For one, the biggest of the barangays has become so powerful, they could actually lasso a politician’s nose during election time. You know what I mean.
It could be all about political leverage or political management. Dyaraaan!
Chi, I thought that by merging barangays, they were actually making each one bigger! Or is the barangay you’re referring to going to be split up and merged with others?
I hate politics! Especially the way in this Philippine system it encroaches too much on the private sector and the economy. Only egotistical, greedy people run for public office — and those that start out with the best intentions end up egotistical and greedy in the end.
Yes exactly, all of the above.
In the politicians’ complaints that I heard during the last election, those who either didn’t get the big barangays’ support or didn’t have enough money to buy baranganic votes wholesale — ended up on the lopsided part of the political arena.
They’ve had this “downsizing” idea in mind even before the last elections but somehow, got to doing it only now.
After the downsizing (or whittling of barangay political powers), the next logical move would be to divide Baguio into more districts, which means more politicians and more congressmen — more people to probably partake of the spoils and booties.
Anyway, for those running as district reps or councilors in the next elections, that would mean great savings because a candidate would no longer need to pepper the entire City — which is no longer a small town really but a bustling squatters’ haven — with their posters and campaign materials.
(By the way, with the current size of Baguio, does anybody believe that those who are in power now spent only something like below half a million pesos? Common Commission on Elections! Liars should beware lightning — the tahimik na kidlat.)