Posh Makati barangay to have quiet, litter-free polls

In Barangay Forbes Park in Makati City, the upcoming barangay elections will be peaceful and clean: no motorcades, very few campaign posters, and even fewer candidates.

A report on GMA News TV's “Balitanghali” on Wednesday said this was a conscious effort on the part of the Forbes Park Homeowners Association, which wants its neighborhood free of the usual hubbub of barangay polls.

In Barangay Forbes Park, vehicles blasting campaign jingles were banned on the streets, and posters could only be posted in homeowners' front and back yards, the report said.

For the October 28 barangay elections, only one candidate—Kagawad Mariegel Manotok—is gunning for the barangay captain position, and she is doing most of her campaigning in the free shuttle rides provided by the neighborhood.



Manotok said this was because household helpers, drivers, and other household staff, who usually avail of the free shuttle rides, form 60 percent of the voting body in Barangay Forbes park.

“Sixty percent are normally household staff, then 40 percent are residents,” said Manotok in the “Balitanghali” report.

She said the homeowners' association came out with the campaign rules because “they want to maintain the peace and order that they have.”

Such a low number of candidates in a barangay is unusual. Mon Casiple, a political analyst, said in the same report that since the barangay is the basic unit of the government, the captain wields power and reaps benefits befitting the position—namely, money.

“Ang barangay ay basic unit na ngayon ng gobyerno. Pag ikaw ay humaharap sa mga tao sa lugar, ikaw ang gobyerno. So mula diyan marami kang benepisyong pwedeng makuha. Unang-una na, may pera yan,” he said.

Affirming this is Commission on Elections (Comelec) spokesman James Jimenez, who, in a report on “24 Oras” on Tuesday, said the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) is probably the reason why barangay elections are more tense than national elections.

"Kung mas malaki ang IRA na pinag-uusapan, then people tend to be more determined to win, sometimes by hook or by crook," said Jimenez.

Despite this, Casiple said that barangay leadership is integral to the everyday operations of the government.

“Necessary, kasi ang barangay, 'yung day-to-day na gobyerno sa lugar, whether basura 'yan, peace and order, dengue. Basta, 'yung ganung klase ng mga problema, ang unang dunugan mo diyan (ay) barangay,” said Casiple. — Rie Takumi/KBK, GMA News