BAGUIO CITY – The City Council approved on first reading a proposed ordinance granting all the city’s one hundred twenty-eight barangays an annual aid of P100,000 for their priority development projects and the improvement of the delivery of basic services to their constituents.
The ordinance authored by Councilor Leandro B. Yangot, Jr. said the local legislative measure shall be known as “the Annual Aid to Barangays in the City of Baguio.’
Yangot emphasized the annual financial assistance of P100,000 per barangay shall be incorporated in the annual budget of the city for 2018 and every year thereafter to guarantee more development projects in the different barangays coupled with the significant improvement in the delivery of basic services to barangay constituents.
He explained the barangays in the city are at the forefront in helping the local government in the effective and efficient delivery of basic and necessary services to the citizenry.
Consequently, he underscored all the city’s barangays need funding support to successfully meet the demands of the service, thus, the city government must provide the barangays the sufficient support for the barangay officials to be able to effectively and efficiently discharge their duties and responsibilities.
Under Section 324 of the Local Government Code of the Philippines, the budgets of the local government units for any fiscal year shall comply with the following requirements and in the case of provinces, cities, and municipalities, aid to component barangays shall be provided in amounts of not less than P1,000 per barangay.
According to Yangot, the local government is currently granting P30,0000 annual financial assistance to all the city’s 128 barangays.
However, with the multifarious tasks assigned to the barangays including, among others, chief implementors of the anti-obstruction fiat under Administrative Order No. 116, series of 2016, otherwise known as Creating a Task Force to Implement Transportation and Traffic Regulations in the City of Baguio, service of notices coming from the various departments of the city, like the City Mayor’s office, City Treasury, City Assessor, City Environment and Parks Management Office, city Engineering office, City Building Official among others, chief collectors of garbage fees collected by the city, health and nutrition program implementors, peacekeeping and alternative dispute resolution advocates, there is an urgent and dire need to increase the aid being currently provided to the different barangays.
Yangot claimed the city’s barangays deserve the long-awaited increase in the city’s financial assistance to augment its resources being used by the barangay officials in the implementation of their priority development projects and improving the delivery of their basic services to their constituents.
By empowering the barangays to be aggressive in working out the development of their respective areas of jurisdiction, he expressed optimism that the city will achieve the robust growth for the general welfare of its constituents.
By Dexter A. See