Punchline
What’s next after ‘Deputy Mayor’?
By Ermin Garcia Jr.
THE Dagupan City government is trailblazing in local governance in the province, or so it seems.
The 31 barangays in the city will be formed into clusters to improve efficiency in the delivery of services to the barangays. That’s the good news.
Now the bad news, the city will have 6 barangay coordinators to lead the clusters, an added layer to the bureaucracy for the delivery of services to the barangays, making the city administrator’s position redundant.
But even better, it’s good news for the kapitans. The lucky ones who get anointed to head each cluster of barangay will be hereinafter referred to as “Honorable Deputy Mayor”!
The bad news for them is that their new moniker will soon be the butt of jokes since, as the mayor insists, nothing about it has legal basis, and certainly is nothing close to talking, looking, walking and smelling like the mayor but merely honorific, meaning consuelo de bobo.
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If the title is in fact an empty honor, why even bother calling the kapitans as such? And if the kapitans know this to be so, shouldn’t they feel insulted for being made to feel important knowing fully well there is nothing in the law that says they deserve a new title that appends the word ‘mayor’ to it?
I can agree with Mayor Al’s decision to adopt the suggestion of Liga ng mga Barangay president Lino Fernandez because it presents a practical approach to proactive governance. My issue with the proposition is precisely the bad news items that accompany it.
The law mandates that there are only two titles for two positions in local government that bear the word ‘mayor’: the mayor and the vice mayor. There is nothing in the law that says that a hybrid political animal like a ‘deputy mayor’ should exist. Stripped of any legal basis, the title ‘Deputy Mayor’ becomes a big joke and risks the viability of the clustering scheme as envisioned. I don’t believe the city council will even have the gall (or courage?) to adopt a resolution supporting the new title for it would make councilors the laughing stock everywhere, as the newest idiots in town, next to the ‘deputy mayors’.
Since the new title is not supposed to mean anything in terms of added political power as Mayor Al avers, what good will it do then? Nothing but more trouble that he can ill afford like a hole in the head. For instance, what’s to stop a ‘deputy mayor’ from lording it over another kapitan on any trivial issue? How many tanods have we seen working the block who act like they are both the kapitan’s bouncer and agents of the NBI? Get my drift?
The play on the ‘deputy mayor’ title will inevitably become a source of political intrigues among peers because it represents nothing but another epitome of ‘palakasan’ syndrome. Without any legal framework, particularly a term of office, what is to stop others from insisting they deserve to stay on as deputy mayors longer than others?
Then, who will have more say on barangay affairs? The ‘deputy mayor’ or the officers of the Liga ng mga Barangay? Will the president and vice presidents of the Liga take orders from the ‘deputy mayor’? Who will the mayor listen to?
And how will visitors to Dagupan react to being introduced to both the vice mayor and a deputy mayor in an official event? I surmise that as ‘deputy mayors’ they will have special places in such events like the vice mayor and the councilors. I wonder what the protocol would be like. A deputy mayor certainly sounds more important than a councilor. Tsk-tsk.
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The task at hand for the clustering scheme requires a barangay cluster coordinator, period. The title may not be glamorous at all but that’s how the new political animal should look, walk and talk. And therefore should be referred to as such – cluster coordinators! Nothing can be clearer than that, and very legal!
We are told the clustering scheme is aimed at facilitating the planning for the delivery of services to barangays that share common needs as neighbors. With that clear purpose, city hall need not even issue an executive fiat to give the coordinator a pseudo official color. This is a clearly an exclusive business of the Liga and if it thinks it wants to give its coordinators a fancy name, that’s its prerogative but it should not be allowed to append any constitutionally mandated political title like ‘mayor’, ‘vice mayor,’ ‘councilor’, etc to whatever title they desire. In fact, the clustering scheme does not even need an executive memo much less a resolution from the city council; I would surmise that all it needs is a resolution of the Liga supported by uniform resolutions from all the city’s barangays.
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While the clustering idea is being peddled as an opportunity for stakeholders in governance to be more proactive, many city hall observers have a different take of the proposal.
They say that the idea was concocted to suit Mayor Al’s disposition who they say has ceased to be a hands-on executive, and has become more active as a resort entrepreneur. The idea of making more assistants and deputies report to him give the impression that he remains on the go. This may not be true.
Still other political pundits suggest that the insistence of Mayor Al to be surrounded by ‘deputy mayors’ is aimed at seducing the kapitans to be his campaign lieutenants, and is, therefore, clearly politically motivated. They add it is not only politically incorrect for him to do it but utterly insensitive to his supportive vice mayor and councilors making them appear lower in rank. I have to agree.
At the rate Mayor Al is going, I wouldn’t then be surprised if he announces another officious sounding title soon flatter the kapitans – Executive Chairman of the Dagupan City Council of Deputy Mayors.
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