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By Sherryle Anne G. Quito, Senior Reporter
Editor’s note: The first parts traced how
the barangay system was corrupted, which eventually affected the
Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) or the youth council. And instead of
teaching young people how to be leaders, the SK became the breeding
ground for teaching young people about dirty politics.
Last of three parts
“As long as the sacred vote of even just one
person is violated, we are not free,” Supreme Court Chief Justice
Reynato Puno said in last year’s Bonifacio Day rites.
“Freedom goes hand in hand with honor,” Puno
added. “A person who is free is one who has honor—he is whole
and complete. He is not anybody’s slave and is guided only by his
conscience.”
Philippine politics is changing, but it has yet
to really change. Barangay and SK elections mirror the awful
characteristics of Philippine politics. Dr. Alex Brillantes of the
University of the Philippines believes the barangay and other local
governments can be the “vanguards of democratization” in the
country. Unfortunately, barangay elections are dictated by guns,
goons and gold. Votes are for sale, ballots are tampered with, and
the innocent are killed. The elections as a democratic exercise have
been completely undermined in the latest exercise to the point of
being a farce. There goes our democracy.
President Gloria Arroyo has enjoined all
government and other groups in society, including political blocs,
to join hands in ensuring that there is democracy and free
expression of the people’s will in these elections.
“You should not be intimidated by groups who
may use violence and other terror tactics in trying to influence
your votes,” Cabinet Secretary Ricardo Saludo quoted the President
as saying.
The payoff
But what really is at stake? Why such interest
in running for a barangay or SK post? Barangay and SK officials
receive honorariums ranging from P4,000 to P6,000 a month. Kagawads
or councilors receive around P3,000 monthly. But officials of more
affluent barangay units, such as Ayala-Alabang in Muntinlupa City
and St. Ignacius in Quezon City, receive honorariums ranging from
P8,000 to P15,000 a month while kagawads receive at least P6,000.
Other benefits include: Christmas bonus of at
least P1,000, insurance coverage (for disability, accident, death
and burial), free medical care in any government hospital, medical
coverage of up to P5,000 for private hospitals (chargeable to
barangay funds), and scholarship for children in state colleges and
universities.
But contrary to what others believe, there is
more at stake for winning barangay officers. This is where the
“give-and-receive” scheme comes in.
Dirty politics
The Synchronized Barangay and SK Elections Act
of 2002 (Republic Act 9164) states that barangay elections should be
nonpartisan events: “No person who files a certificate of
candidacy shall represent or allow himself to be represented as a
candidate of any political party or any other organization.”
This is a futile measure. As far as vote buying
is concerned, parties are superfluous. According to the Institute
for Popular Democracy, a party of traditional politicians or
“trapos” is simply an instrument of convenience that one can set
up, merge with others, split, reconstitute, resurrect, rename,
repackage, recycle, refurbish, buff up or flush down the toilet
anytime. A “trapo” candidate needs patrons or investors, not
parties. Some politicians are known to give financial support to
aspiring barangay officials, hoping that come election time, the
latter would help deliver votes for them.
Local politicians have their own candidates who
are sure to win because they spend millions not from their own
pockets but from ill-gotten wealth. In this manner, they establish a
strong political base that, come election time, the barangay and SK
candidates who won will deliver votes needed to win the polls. So
politics in this country is controlled by political dynasties. Is it
not about time to abolish this SK election and train the youth to be
entrepreneurs instead?
Politicians—congressmen, mayors and other
local officials, as well as aspirants for these positions—are
intensely involved in barangay and SK elections because their
respective organizations play a crucial and oftentimes key role in
determining the outcome of their own bids for office in the local
and congressional elections that follow. The barangay and SK
organization can be transformed into an electoral machinery or serve
as its backbone. The October 2007 elections are in preparation for
the 2010 national elections. Surveys reveal that in all the barangay
units, the candidate supported by the barangay captain won in the
barangay concerned.
The barangay and SK polls, supposedly
nonpartisan and not money-driven, suffered from the same practices
that critics of other elections love to condemn. Almost every
barangay showed miniature versions of the so-called trapo politics.
Those observing closely the activity, from the formation of lineups
to the conduct of the campaign, actual voting and counting, will not
find many redeeming values in it. People appreciate the services
given by barangays but they also perceive barangay officials as
low-key corrupt politicians.
Corruption starts early
In a 2005 story, “So Young and So Trapo,”
the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism reported that SK
is failing miserably in its mandate.
The SK was meant to be a training ground for the
next generation of leaders. But with the introduction of trapo ways,
many now doubt if there should still be an SK. No less than Sen.
Aquilino Pimentel Jr., considered the father of the Local Government
Code of 1991, favors the abolition of the SK for “no longer
serving its purpose as a training ground for youth leaders and a
means of getting the youth involved in community development.”
Worse, he said, SK leaders commit corrupt
practices, “unable to resist the temptation to which they are
exposed in handling public funds that are entrusted to them.”
This is what pushed Cavite Rep. Gilbert Remulla
to sponsor House Bill 185 seeking the abolition of SK, amending
relevant provisions of Republic Act 7160, the Local Government Code
of the Philippines.
In the proposed 2008 budget, local governments
were allocated P228 billion, which gives all 41,994 barangay units a
total fund of P46 billion. Some P5 billion, or 10 percent of this is
allotted to the SK. There are claims that the SK budget is spent
only on basketball tournaments and beauty pageants.
A former congressman said the SK is a
“training ground not for efficient government leaders but for
corrupt politicians.”
Like many of the youth running for an SK post in
the just-concluded barangay elections, former SK chairman Lira
Sanchez is aware that it is precisely this practice that has led
many to believe that the SK has fallen into the grip of traditional
politics.
The National Youth Commission, in a recently
published SK Reform Policy Paper, said the top three favorite
projects of the SK concern sports, environment, and infrastructure.
Projects are not planned and monitored; most also do not submit
annual reports. The SK, the commission added, is also not able to
convene the Katipunan ng mga Kabataan (KK), or the SK electorate.
Under the law, that body is supposed to meet with the council every
three months to get an update on the projects of the SK and to air
their concerns. Many of the youth interviewed in “So Young and So
Trapo” are in fact not even aware that there should be such
electorate.
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