Barangay dads eye clustering of barangays
After the proposal to divide Iloilo City into two districts comes the possible clustering of the city's 180 barangays.
Liga ng mga Barangay president Irene Ong confirmed that talks about the clustering of barangays circulate among the barangay officials.
The clustering of barangays will eventually abolish smaller barangays. A barangay maybe abolished when its income, population or land area has been irreversibly reduced to less than the minimum standards.
Section 6 of the Local Government Code of 1991 which discuss on the the authority to create Local Government Units says that a local government unit may be created, divided, merged, abolished or its boundaries substantially altered either by law enacted by Congress in the case of a province, city, municipality or any other political subdivision or by ordinance passed by the Sangguniang Panlalawigan or Sangguniang Panlungsod concerned in the case of a Barangay located within its territorial jurisdiction, subject to such limitation and requirements prescribed in the Code.
While, Section 10 of the same Code which concerns on the plebiscite requirement said that no creation, division, merger, abolition or substantial alteration of boundaries of local government units shall take effect unless approved by a majority of the votes cast in a plebiscite called for the purpose in the political unit or units directly affected . The plebiscite shall be conducted by the Commission on Elections within 120 days from the date of the effectivity of law of ordinance affecting such The requirement for the plebiscite such action, unless said law or ordinance fixes another date.
The proposed merger and abolition of barangays came in after Representative Raul Gonzalez Jr. filed House Bill 3672 which proposes the amendment of the 1936 Charter of Iloilo City and allow the creation of two congressional districts. Under the said proposal, the there would be only one mayor and additional members of the legislative body. There is no need for the conduct of a plebiscite as he only calls for the amendment of certain section of the city's Charter.
With the proposal to amend the City's Charter comes the creation of two districts. The first district would be Mandurriao, Jaro and Lapaz while the City Proper, Molo and Arevalo will comprise the second district.
Ong said there are disadvantages and advantages on the proposed merging of the barangays. One of the disadvantages of merging the barangays is on the matter of peace and order. If the barangay has a large area, barangay officials will have a hard time monitoring the people living in their respective barangay, said Ong.
While, one of the advantages when barangays are merged will be the end result that the honoraria of barangay officials will increase, said Ong.