Reforms after EDSA? Depoliticize the barangays!

Over the weekend the Big Bikers of Cebu rode their bikes to the City of Bayawan, 100 kilometers west of Dumaguete City for its annual “Ride for the Children: 2011” hosted by Bayawan City Mayor Rene Gaudiel and Rep. Henry Teves, a big biker himself. As it was the 25th anniversary of the EDSA Revolt... it was a good time to find out from our friends their thoughts about the EDSA Revolt. In Cebu City, a lot of people remembered that the Fuente Osmeña was filled with people from all walks of life. It was to be the largest number of people that filled up the Fuente Osmeña, ever!

I got a call from retired Air Force General Loven Abadia if I had pictures of that event in Fuente Osmeña as he wanted those photographs sent to the EDSA Museum to show that the EDSA Revolt wasn’t only happening in Manila, it was also happening throughout the rest of the country. Unfortunately, The Freeman which had those photos lost them when the Tinago creek overflowed. But my friend Fred Umabong told me that he had black and white photographs of that historic moment that you folks in Manila never got to see. I will send them to Gen. Abadia when I get my personal copies of this.

While there’s a lot of euphoria in remembering the spirit of EDSA, however, there’s also a lot of disappointment that while EDSA resulted in the return to our democratic way of life, it didn’t give Filipinos a chance at having a better government, nor a chance to get away from that vicious cycle of poverty. We ought to have been at par with our progressive ASEAN neighbors.

With EDSA fever infecting Tunisia, Iraq, Iran, Egypt, Algeria and Libya, there’s apprehension that these countries would soon follow the footsteps of the Philippines where nothing much has changed, and worse, even those who were booted out by the EDSA Revolt has returned to our country and got back their lost political power. This is why I wrote that the book entitled “The Impossible Dream: the Marcoses, the Aquinos and the Unfinished Revolution” written by the late Sandra Burton was quite prophetic.

In Bayawan City, I had a long discussion with Rep. Teves on why the Philippines couldn’t move forward and how best to get things done. I gave him my wish list (from a shift to federalism to reforms in the barangay) that I earnestly hope our political leaders would do in this country to show to our people that our government is not a monolith and listens to the cries of our people. Unlike the Marcos Dictatorship which was regarded as that monolith and no longer listened to the Filipino people, who massed to the streets of EDSA, not only once, but twice! Yet we still lack those reforms!

I’ve written volumes about the need to federalize this country, but alas, it always falls on deaf ears. It makes our fellow STAR columnist Chit Pedrosa and I sound like dogs barking at the moon. But nevertheless we continue barking, hoping someday well-meaning and patriotic people would see the light that indeed, such changes via constitutional reforms are needed if this nation is to move forward.

Just look at our neighbor Malaysia, which is a federated state... so the question we ought to ask is, why not the Philippines? The biggest single thing that is wrong in this country is that we have a centralized form of governance, not far from the defunct and unlamented Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). Sometime in November 2005 the Arroyo administration held public consultations through the Presidential Consultative Commission (con-com) but we have no idea what were the results of that nationwide effort.

Meanwhile, I asked Rep. Teves if he is willing to bite the political bullet and propose reforms in Congress to streamline and improve the most basic unit called the Barangay. The 1987 Cory Constitution has clearly stated that the barangay is apolitical, yet the reality on the ground is that all politicians, bar none, use the barangay to promote their respective political agendas. But this results in gross inefficiency, bureaucracy and yes, corruption... after all, barangays have become the microcosm of the provincial, city or municipal councils or boards.

And just like all elections held in this country, running for a barangay post gets people to spend millions for a position that practically pays in peanuts! So how do we reform the barangay? I propose that a total revision of the Barangay Law be enacted where there would be no more elections for any position in the barangay and the Sangguniang Kabataan (SK).

Henceforth barangay officials would be hired by a Barangay Consultative Council which is authorized to hire and fire barangay officials with a tenure of four years, including the Sangguniang Kabataan. Just imagine how much money would be saved from the national budget for the barangay and the SK? Best of all this reform will truly depoliticize barangays and SK and hopefully, it would be the beginning of less politics and more good governance for our nation.

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