The Kapitan: Primary Frontliner

(These are my thoughts on the capitan de barangay because I thought no one has written about the subject yet. Kayo, ano ang kuwentong kapitan nyo?)

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Primary Frontliner

Growing up, I can't remember any single encounter I had with the local chieftain called "Kapitan" or barangay captain. While I had heard his name among adult conversations at least a couple of times, I had never caught sight of him, not even once.

It was only as an adult that I would find myself face-to-face with one, not counting election season when politicians would routinely go around the barangay (village) to court votes.

As a former long-time resident of Barangay 201 in Pasay, I was forced to visit the barangay hall one day when someone threatened to evict me from my place using words that I thought were criminal. The barangay officials helped me enter the names of the perpetrators on the police blotter and I told my harassers so, forcing them to retreat with tails between their legs and even a quick apology.

Other instances involved other crimes. Someone cased my residence in the middle of the night, obviously attempting forcible entry. Then another time, I was unceremoniously greeted at the front of the house a gift I had never wished for: a plastic bag of trash, deposited by a mystery Santa several days in a row!

At the barangay hall, the people were accommodating as I humbly asked assistance while fighting off my wrath. Could they please help me find out the generous giver of early-morning gifts? The staff promised to monitor my place. I was thankful that the mysterious malefactor stopped, though I was not sure why exactly.

Nobody writes about barangay captains, and perhaps no one cares that much about them because of their lowest stature in the political totem pole. But this is strange because, as I began to understand after joining government service, they are the face of the Philippine government at its most basic level. They are the first frontliners. Today, I give them the focus they deserve.

In one talk by our former municipal administrator, I learned that the power held by the barangay captain is vast and even greater than that held by the kings or queens of England. Why? That's because the kapitan, it was explained, is the village's chief executive officer, chief legislative officer, and the judiciary rolled into one. Though vastly limited as well by his small AOR or area of responsibility, I don't know of any position with that unique combination of powers in a world where democracy holds sway and balance or distribution of power is the rule, with the executive, legislative, and judiciary branches being equal in stature and each having the power to check potential abuses of the two others.

Since then, I saw the kapitan with a whole new set of eyes. Then as now, he (or she) is practically the king (or queen) of the village! ...Even though his name has changed through the vicissitudes of time, from teniente del barrio to cabeza de barangay, then to barangay chairman and barangay captain or capitan del barrio or kapitan del barangay, down to Punong Barangay (PB) as renamed by the Department of the Interior and Local Government per Local Government Code by the time I became more aware of their existence in 2016, the kapitan is ruler of the barangay. But lest we forget, his power emanates from the voters, the barangays residents. So even as king or queen, a kapitan is expected to possess the common touch, in order to be effective.

A little further study would reveal that the kapitan has the following as sworn duties: serve constituents by providing basic services, including public safety and security, emergency services, environmental protection, and social welfare services. As though that's not enough beast-of-burden type of workload, their actual work sked is 24/7. Being a kapitan is like being a mayor in miniature! I've always wondered why anyone would want to assume such responsibilities. Fortunately, he is aided by his 10 Barangay Council members, namely 7 Barangay Kagawads, 1 Sangguniang Kabataan Chairperson, 1 Barangay Secretary, and 1 Barangay Treasurer, plus Barangay Health Workers, Barangay Nutrition Scholars, Barangay Service Point Officer, Barangay Peace and Security Officers or Civilian Volunteers Organization (tanod), and Barangay Peaekeeping Action Team (BPAT). And let's not forget that a barangay should be in constant coordination with the municipal government for needs it cannot meet on its own.

If the family is the basic unit of society, then the barangay is the basic unit of government, and the barangay captain is its head. For this reason, it turns out, the barangay is itself an LGU or local government unit just like the municipality or city or province.

When I came back home in Pangasinan, I suddenly had an intensified knowledge of the existence of the Punong Barangay because a third-degree cousin was sitting as one right in our barangay.

Apart from that, my first personal encounter was at the Municipio, when I joined the DSWD on their longish ride to faraway Brgy. Pantol to cover their turnover of a big poultry project worth hundreds of thousands of pesos, and along the way had to suddenly make an unannounced courtesy call on the kapitan at his residence -- a gesture of respect and deference to his authority, I would instinctively gather. It didn't matter that the kapitan was dressed in house clothes and even came out unshod.

Sometimes, I also had to sit through longish meetings held by the mayor for all of the 77 PBs of our town. But it was only when the covid-19 pandemic struck that I intensely felt the beneficent presence of the barangay hall. I personally saw how they helped cascade and implement national laws and municipal ordinances and other rules to the grassroots, from the usual ones down to crowd control, quarantine, and isolation, how they distributed ayuda or form of assistance (from cash to free lugaw or rice porridge to a few days' worth of food packs), and so on.

Barangay officials and staff, under the PB's order, also particularly came in handy when my father died and my family needed help with rushing him to the hospital and then later for the wake and the burial; when someone in the neighborhood was polluting the air through charcoal-making or wanton trash burning or asthma-triggering chemical sprays; when somebody's dog took a dump right in front of the gate or scratched some kid or worse; and when there was a need to check for dengue-carrying mosquitoes or incidence of malnourishment among resident children. The kapitan also made speeches during barangay or sitio-wide Christmas parties. Most especially, the barangay can be relied upon for help during assorted emergencies, such as during flood or when your home is intruded upon by a burglar or a drug-addled man clutching a shiny knife in his hands (it actually happened to us).

Announcements from the Municipio, such as details about an incoming medical mission and ayuda distribution, are also routinely relayed by barangay people.

The barangay is crucial, therefore, in the delivery of basic services to target demographic. The barangay, I have also discovered, is very powerful in terms of selecting who should receive certain benefits from the government or other entities, whether the recipients should be senior citizens, PWDs, OFWs, displaced or disadvantaged workers, indigent families, minors, and the like. After all, who knows the barangay residents best but their own neighborhood?

Because a PB is also a politician, he/she is prone to politicking, and must possess the ability to navigate the complexity of the dynamics of human relationships when people belong to rival parties. In my case, I have seen how PBs can choose to be uncooperative with the projects of parties they don't belong to or dislike. It can get very ugly.

I've noticed that barangays regularly conduct barangay assemblies, and I think it is a good opportunity for residents to attend to voice their own concerns related to life in the barangay. I wonder who actually attend these assemblies and whether the things they aired out were actually addressed. I myself would've raised the lack of a proper drainage system in our place, for one, and the lack of children's playground for another, knowing each barangay has a budget for infrastructure and some such allotments.

It pays to be friends, or at least on civil terms, with our barangay officials and staff, especially with the kapitan. After all, no matter what ivory tower we live in, they are indispensable because we Filipinos are all taga-barangay (barangay residents); we are all constituents under the "catchment area" of a barangay captain.