The City Council of Puerto Princesa pushed for the implementation of Barangay ID system in the city’s 66 barangays in an effort to establish an updated database and registry of all households and individuals, and facilitate the delivery of services at the barangay level.
Liga ng mga Barangay President and City Council’s ex-officio member, Francisco Gabuco sponsored an ordinance for the establishment of database of all households and individuals in the different barangays, by the Barangay Local Government Unit themselves. The proposed measure is known as “An ordinance enjoining all barangays of Puerto Princesa City to establish and maintain database of all households and individuals including their socio-economic characteristics thru a one-time census within their respective areas of jurisdiction,”.
“This is only for the barangay. Reference lang po ito ng barangay. Kami po sa barangay pwede po naming gawin na lagi po kaming magkaroon ng updating ng list ng residente namin,” Gabuco said.
He explained that as the frontliners in the delivery of services to their constituents, they wanted to know who are the bonafide residents of their barangays. He further said that there are instances when an individual, go to the barangay and ask for the issuance of barangay clearances and certifications and claimed that he has been a resident of the barangay for two years, yet he just transferred to that barangay for merely few weeks or months ago only. This can be prevented with the ID System and database in place, said Gabuco.
City Councilor Peter Q. Maristela suggested in include in the draft ordinance on how to Barangay will specifically implement the Barangay ID System, while City Councilor Herbert S. Dilig proposed to penalized those individuals who will possess more than one Barangay ID.
In his draft ordinance, Gabuco explained that the proposed measure, the database, and the ID System, will facilitate and further capacitate them in the delivery of services to their constituents. “For the barangay to perform as the primary planning and implementing units of the government policies, plans and programs, projects and activities in the country, it is only imperative that their capacities be strengthened by providing them with a database as an evidence generating tool in performing target-focused and clientele-specific delivery of basic services and tackling with certain level of ease, the numerous tasks assigned to them by the National Government and its Local Government Unit,” he said.
City Planning and Development Department Head, Engr. Jovenee C. Sagun said that the plan of the 66 barangays to undertake survey will help their office, since they are set to update the City’s Community-Based Monitoring System (CBMS) next year. The CBMS is an organized process of data collection and processing at the local level and of integration of data in local planning, program implementation and impact monitoring. It is a system developed by the government in 1990s, that promotes evidence-based policy-making and program implementation while empowering communities to participate in the process.
“With regards to the proposal of Councilor Gabuco to undertake the survey, wala po kaming objections nito. Kung may inventory na gagawin ang mga barangay ay malaking tulong yun sa amin, specifically itong registry of all households,” she said.
The ID system and database in City’s barangays is likewise considered to help the barangay in efficiently implementing existing laws and local ordinances, considering that the barangay has several powers, duties and functions in maintaining public order, ensure the delivery of basic services, enforce laws and regulations relating to pollution control and protection of the environment, adopt measures to prevent and control the proliferation of informal settlers, adopt measures to prevent and eradicate illegal drugs, child abuse, juvenile delinquency, violence against women and their children, etc.