Getting serious at the barangays

 

A NEW set of barangay officials are now in place, some re-elected, others on their first time and those who are on a comeback. Apart from the usual tasks that elected village leaders are expected to perform, their three-year term, which took effect last November 30, will be shaped by recent developments in the political sphere as well as climate conditions.

Now that the Supreme Court has ruled that the pork, officially called the Priority Development Assistance Fund, is unconstitutional, the long flawed tradition among politicians – including at the barangay level – of allocating funds for themselves has been made authoritatively illegal. Barangay leaders can be sued by their constituents if they persist on apportioning funds with no accountability. The Department of Interior and Local Government is keeping up with these times of awakened public anger over corruption by expanding the orientation of first-termer barangay officials to include accounting know-how so they can prepare reports to the people. (Though why not include as well the old hands in the training?) The public, in turn, must demand these reports to ensure transparency.

Councils for disaster preparedness and response at the barangay level have also become crucial components of village management in light of emerging weather patterns where natural calamities strike areas that have previously been deemed secure.

Barangay leadership has become more serious than ever. Our new officials have three years ahead of them to show and prove that they are earnest about public service that is characterized by transparency, accountability, and responsibility on the welfare of their communities.

 

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Killer Kim

 

MANNY Pacquiao did not meet a monster in Brandon Rios as bandied about.  At most, the PacMan faced a paper tiger that could barely hit, nay hurt, with paw-like shots.  There was not even a shadow of a dreaded mobster in Macau; the real monster/mobster was in Manila.  Barely had Pacquiao warmed his seat in his mansion in GenSan, fresh from his magnificent mauling of Rios to earn a lopsided 12-round decision victory, when Kim Henares, the country’s chief tax collector, slapped Pacquiao a P2.2 billion tax debt allegedly accrued from his 2008-2009 earnings atop the ring and from other endorsements.

For Pacquiao, that was the sneakiest shot he had ever absorbed, seemingly more deadly than the knockout punch delivered to him to suffer that sixth-round knockout loss to Juan Manuel Marquez on Dec. 8, 2012.  Never mind that the BIR claims he was given two years to make his case.

Kim Henares wasn’t only the deaf of the decade, in the process spoiling the party of a nation still in anguish over a deadly typhoon that struck Central Visayas, notably Tacloban City.  For being so indifferent and unmindful of the mood of the times, she also has just renamed herself Killer Kim. She killed soaring spirits amid sadness, wailing, whining and total grief, right?

May her own tribe deride her, if not drop her like a hot tong.

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