TO empower and enable barangay officials to serve their constituents more effectively, a bill has been filed in Congress which seeks to define certain basic services and privileges from barangays to which their residents are entitled.

Bataan 1st District Representative Geraldine Roman, principal author of House Bill (HB) No. 228, known as “The Magna Carta for Barangays,” mentioned the importance of the “Barangay as a political unit that should not be ignored.”

Roman, the chairperson of the House Committee on Women and Gender Equality, said by the nature of their work, the safety and security of the barangay officials are always at risk.

“One glaring example [of] this is in the fight against drugs. It is the Barangay officials who have the list of actual or possible drug peddlers and users in the community,” the lady legislator from Bataan added.

Complaints against those involved in drugs are often lodged with them before the complainants go to the police.

It is these barangay officials who are the first in line when it comes to receiving reports of crimes that are being committed or have just been committed, Roman said.

“Sadly, despite the services that they render with the accompanying danger to themselves and their family members, Barangay officials are a sorely neglected lot. The benefits that they currently receive from the government are not commensurate to what is due them,” she said.

“To be able to deliver basic services to the people efficiently, the Barangay should be empowered and enabled to stand on its own,” Roman said, adding that necessary facilities like safe and drinkable water, health centers, educational centers, and schools, barangay halls, and means for public commuting should be in place to promote the general welfare of the barangay.

The proposed Magna Carta also declares every barangay’s right to have a regular supply of clean and potable drinking water.

To attain this goal, every city and municipality, as the case may be, is hereby required to construct and/or maintain at least one deep well with a pumping device for drawing drinking water to supply the needs of every one thousand residents for each barangay within its jurisdiction.

Every barangay is entitled to have at least one elementary school: Provided that there shall be at least one high school for every five kilometers from the barangay center.

It shall also be the right of every barangay to have one health center and one barangay hall.

Roman champions equal opportunity for all Filipinos.

For her, equal opportunity is a “state of fairness in which individuals are treated similarly, unhampered by artificial barriers, prejudices or preferences, except when particular distinctions can be explicitly justified.”

Roman stands for advancement to be open to everybody without regard for wealth, status, or membership in a privileged group.