The newly created Barangay Maharlika in this city will elect their first-ever Chairperson and other officials in the May 14 synchronized Barangay and Sanggunian Kabataan Elections.
Barangay Maharlika was created as separate and distinct barangay from its mother unit as approved by the residents through a plebiscite on July 11, 2015.
However, succeeding postponements of the village polls since then left the village without a leader, and now gears to form its own political structure as neophyte barangay on May 14.
Assistant Professor II DC Alviar, social scientist-faculty member and main researcher of the National University (NU)-College of Education, Arts and Science, disclosed their study on “A Newly-Created Barangay Maharlika’s Role Given the Political Economy of Leadership and Power” under a NU research grant award.
Alviar, who heads the NU’s community extensions head, said their study delves on Maharlika as a separate LGU from its mother Barangay San Vicente by virtue of a law that separated it besides six other newly-formed barangays, making 27 barangays in this city as of 2015.
The study aims to develop intervention strategies to reverse adverse trends meant for the residents of the new barangay and its evolution into a full-fledged barangay unit through empowerment via systems thinking.
The NU research study said the Barangay Maharlika’s code 043425025 per the Philippine Standard Geographic Code (PSGC) database and six others were formed through a Provincial Ordinance No. 8 (s. 1997) of the Laguna Sangguniang Panlalawigan (provincial legislative council), which provided for their creation as separate and distinct barangays approved by the residents through a plebiscite on July 11, 2015.
He said that the NU study is sponsoring the Systems Thinking sessions in the new barangay which tries to help all stakeholders by providing them with a guide to design and align its plans and programs, its statement of vision and mission, and its related strategies suitable for its new role as a barangay under the Local Government Code.
“The NU researchers were the ones presiding over the sessions and meetings. Given the political economy of leadership and power in Philippine local government politics, plus the overstretching national leadership, Maharlika is still expected to perform the “Role of the Barangay” without delay,” Alviar said.
He said that their NU research study team is applying Peter Senge’s Systems Thinking in the context of building a barangay that proceeds carefully with the necessary time to learn why it has to become a learning barangay.
“To date, Maharlika is merely daydreaming its “role” as a basic political unit but does not actually serve as the primary planning and implementing unit of government policies, plans, programs, projects, and activities in the community as yet,” the NU professor-researcher said.
But, he said this jumpstarts as a forum wherein the collective views of the people may be expressed, crystallized and considered, and where disputes may be amicably settled in accordance with the Local Government Code.
He said that given the scheduled elections, the Maharlika barangay role is there but the political actors are yet to steer and direct this unit as a “political economy” but which tendency should avoid treating the whole as more than the sum of the parts, as other aspects and people should constitute as one learning organization.
“The barangay attempts to learn to do things differently as village officials and residents welcome the opportunity to engage in lively discussions exploring the promise of Systems Thinking to its problem structuring, dynamic modeling and related phases,” the NU main researcher said.
The study revealed that there are about 2,389 voters from its estimated 5,000 population and barangay official aspirants have already filed their certificates of candidacy last week in the still old polling precincts at Chrysanthemum Village Elementary School as “there are no public elementary and high schools in Barangay Maharlika yet.”
He also described the optimism by potential local barangay leaders and city officials during their focused group discussions on political empowerment and the structural organization and geographic mapping, although around 100 voters were not able to officially transfer yet as new barangay registered residents.
According to Prof. Alviar, their study involved random sampling to some 400 residents and stakeholders in batches of 50-50-150-150 in the four subdivisions Adelina Complex II, Villa Olympia Subdivision, Harmony Homes, and Mercedes Homes comprising Barangay Maharlika.
The researchers will evaluate the robustness of barangay policies and strategies after identifying system archetypes and key leverage points and the results and insights of the proposed intervention will be presented to City Mayor Lourdes Cataquiz, the village leaders and stakeholders.
“It (Barangay Maharlika) has to experience electing its own officials, exercising the power to issue its own barangay permits, and utilizing its own development fund, fire and rescue units, barangay health center, ambulance, waste management, environmental projects, day care center, school, and programs for technical and vocational courses,” the NU researchers said.
The researchers also expect this new barangay to become a more responsive and accountable political unit as even the tricycle and drivers association AMCOSJTODA shared their concerns on the safety of roads leading to their gated villages.
The researchers continued “Sa tingin ni Peter Senge na pinaniniwalaan namin, ang katalinuhang kailangan natin ay kolektibo. Kailangan natin ng mga lungsod…at ng mga sector na pang-industriya na kakaibang magtrabaho.( Believeing in Senge’s Fift Discipline in Systems Thinking, we need the collective wisdom. We need new cities and industrial sector that work with a difference).”
Peter Senge is an American systems scientist who is a senior lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management, co-faculty at the New England Complex Systems Institute, and the founder of the Society for Organizational Learning. He is known as the author of the book The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization (1990, rev.2006)
The NU study would also probe on the transformative value and supply which could be administered from the start up to the end to be able to impact on social, ecological and economic changes – a concept that could be achieved through the collective wisdom in the new political organization.
