ABC prexy wants whole SP to decide on fate of Brgy. Roxas Village

By Jeehan V. Fernandez

Liga ng mga Barangay president Marietta V. Orleans proposed that the issue on the abolition of Brgy. Roxas Village in the City Proper be taken up by the entire members of the Sangguniang Panlungsod through a Committee of the Whole.

“The issue regarding the abolition of Brgy. Roxas Village is not just an ordinary (one) since it involves affected residents and barangay officials therein,” she stressed.

Orleans noted that it is the first time in the history of Iloilo City where a barangay has been recommended to be abolished by the Commission on Elections (Comelec), which consequently needs careful study and evaluation.

“To properly deliberate on the issue and avoid partiality, it is proper that all local officials concerned be given a chance to be heard before arriving at any decision,” Orleans pointed out.

Latest record shows that Brgy. Roxas Village presently has only 22 residents.

However, it can be noted that the SP approved an Annual Budget and Annual Development Plan of 15 barangays in the city for 2005, including Brgy. Roxas Village with a fund amounting to P745,788.35.

Earlier, City Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) officer Martin Delgado stressed that a local government unit maybe abolished when its income, population or land area has been irreversibly reduced to less than the minimum standards.

Quoting a City Legal Office report, Delgado pointed out that “in the case of Brgy. Roxas Village , it appears that its population is reduced to only 22 residents”. Likewise, he cited that “under the law, the required minimum population for a barangay in a highly urbanized city is 5,000 people”.

Delgado added that there is substantial reason for the abolition of the barangay if there is only such number of people residing in the area, but this should be attested by the National Statistics Office (NSO).

“Further, the authority to abolish a barangay is within the power of the SP,” Delgado said adding that “no abolition would take effect unless approved by a majority of votes cast in a plebiscite to be conducted by the Comelec in the political unit directly affected”.

To note, complainant Romeo Diño, former barangay captain of Roxas Village , asked the SP to act on a recommendation of former city election officer for the abolition of the said barangay.

City's Commission on Elections (Comelec) officer Atty. Daisy Real in a letter to the mayor through the SP, stated that by allowing the existence of the barangay, the city “continually tolerates giving the officials the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) and allowances when there are no services rendered as there are no residents to cater to.”

Real had recommended “the abolition of said barangay on the basis that the number of inhabitants residing therein is no longer viable in order to maintain one whole barangay.”

The Comelec officer added “the said land area and its remaining registered and actual residents, should be made form and part of an adjacent barangay.”

The area where the barangay is situated is now being occupied by a shopping mall and that former squatter residents had been relocated or transferred to other residences, Real said.