Over the week-end we were able to meet some barangay officials who came to visit the rural village where we are currently staying. All of them told us closely similar tales – their failure to receive some kind of monthly “allowance” from the Office of the City Mayor.
According to the officials of the barangays we have talked to, the money they regularly receive is drawn from the Intelligence Fund (IF) of the mayor given by the national government through the Office of the President. The local chief executives are entitled to 10 percent of the concerned LGU’s budget in a given year as IF from the national government.. So, with Davao City’s current budget it is easy to imagine how gargantuan the city mayor’s IF could be.
But as the name of the fund suggests, the money is intended to further the intelligence activities at the local government level. So, considering that the barangay officials starting from the village’s chief down to the last barangay kagawad are the “eyes and ears” of the mayor or governor, then it is only appropriate that the barangay officials be given a share of the said IF.
However, gauging from the disclosure of the barangay officials we talked to just over the week-end it appears that they failed to receive their due starting the months when Davao City Mayor Baste Duterte openly joined his father former President Rodrigo R. Duterte in his bitter political quarrel with the incumbent Malacanang tenant.
Mayor Baste joined some – if not all – of the so-called prayer rallies held in key cities in the country. In his speeches Mayor Baste called on the President to resign, although he made no mention of clear and specific issues why.
With the Mayor’s scathing attacks against the President coupled with the even more vile-languaged harangue by his father former President Rody, it is our suspicion that the incumbent President finds it imperative to confront his attackers in a more subtle but grossly devastating to the mayor’s political infrastructure
How? By simply delaying, even possibly denying, for whatever reason the release of the Mayor’s IF that comes from his (the President’s) office. It follows therefore that the negative impact of the absence of the mayor’s IF cascades down to the lowest level of intelligence information gatherers, the barangay officials.
Whether the assumption by the village officials of the cause of the sudden “loss” of their monthly take from the Office of the Mayor’s IF is accurate or not we will only know much later. But for certain there will be negative consequences especially in the aspect of monitoring the presence of anti-government ideologues and those whose intention is just to sow chaos in society.
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Then comes this post on Facebook by a friend claiming that the stocks of our staple food, rice, is starting to disappear in market stalls and other retail outlets.
He added that if one rice buyer will have a hard time finding the rice in retail outlets, all he or she has to do is go to certain sidewalks where some kind of ambulant outlets are suddenly rising to cater to the needs of those wanting to buy rice at affordable prices.
Of course based on the latest experience of a member of our household who did the marketing last Saturday we learned that the diminishing stock at the rice retailer we are usually buying our staple grains is far from noticeable.
Therefore, we are not yet ready to agree with our friend’s observation based on his Facebook post. But what we will strongly agree with anyone is that what is now missing is the money in our (and every other ordinary man’s) pocket that we use in buying our staple food.
Other than its disappearance in our possession, is also the fast slipping of the value of whatever money that comes our way.
In other words, these days, whatever money that one can earn, given its current value only so less can be bought by it.
But whatever, from the way things are going and how observations made by certain sectors of the population are crafted, it appears that politics is well woven in the observations. In similar manner it is how politically partisan individuals put meaning to the most recent overhauling of commands in the police stations in Davao City. That it certainly is laced with politics.
Whether these observant citizens are correct or not, we have no idea. Only the near future can tell.
