96 percent happy with barangay services - survey

MANILA, Philippines - A huge majority--96 percent--of barangay residents in the country are "satisfied" with local government services, according to a joint survey of mobile giant Globe Telecom and the Philippine Center for Civic Education and Democracy.

The nationwide survey, made for the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), discovered that 99 percent of barangay residents have availed of barangay services and are generally contented.

Respondents said services they have availed involved requests for barangay clearance and certificate of residency.

The survey's 376 respondents answered five yes or no questions, which they were also asked to score from a 1 to 5 range.

While 96 percent said they were satisfied with how barangay officials and staff accommodated their requests, two percent were only "somewhat satisfied."

Only one percent said they were not altogether contented with how their local barangays, the smallest administrative districts in the country, served them.

DILG's National Barangay Operations branch director Virgilio Castro said in a presentation on Tuesday that the survey aimed at assessing the level of awareness among citizens as well as the implementation of the Anti-Red Tape Act or Republic Act 9485.

The law seeks to prevent graft and corruption especially in the government's frontline operations by following standards based on a Ctizens' Charter.

The study was also used as a measuring tool to evaluate how barangays administer the Full Disclosure Policy requiring local officials to reveal financial transactions of their units to keep constituents informed.