UBAS for the barangay launched
A PROJECT originated by the late Interior and Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo has arrived in Dagupan City.
The Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) office here launched last Sunday “Ugnayan ng Barangay at Simbahan” (UBAS) in barangay Bonuan Boquig to strengthen the relationship between the government, the communities and the church.
Rhoderick Dawis, chief of DILG Dagupan, said UBAS was launched few years back in the cities of Naga and Cebu and barangay Bonuan Boquig will serve as the showcase barangay for the project in the region.
“Since, the barangay officials in Boquig and their Catholic church members are actively working together, we introduced UBAS to give their (barangay and local church) relationship a structure to further maximize the product of their cooperation”, said Dawis.
UBAS was introduced to the community during the synchronized barangay assembly last October 12 attended by Church lay leaders in Barangay Bonuan Boquig, barangay officials led by Barangay chair Joseph Maramba and Assistant Regional Director Julie Daquioag of DILG Region 1.
Dawis said the project aims to ensure good governance in barangays, encourage and transform citizens into barangay good governance advocates, strengthen rapport, friendship and cooperation between all UBAS stakeholders to effectively deliver social services and finally to develop the barangay as center of development.
“The Church will serve as the eye of the people in the barangay but we will make sure that the separation of state and the church will also be observe”.
Mayor Belen Fernandez and Archbishop Socrates Villegas will be invited to sign a memorandum of agreement to signal its full implementation in the city.
Dawis, however, clarified that this is not exclusive to Catholic parish community. UBAS, he said encourages an interfaith coordination to represent the church since there are as many different denominations or religions in the barangays.
If the experience of Bonuan Boquig becomes successful, Daquioag expressed confidence that the more than 3, 000 barangays in region one can benefit from UBAS as well. (Hilda M. Austria)
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