What better view do we have than the ones coming from the leaders overseeing the huge expanse of the community they are serving? Apart from the opinions based on immersion provided by the constituents, officials belong to the known best sources when it comes to assessment of certain issues we want to address and hopefully, improve.
Earlier on, I conducted a survey involving the community members of Gerona, Tarlac and their view regarding the existing issues in their community. Now, we are peering inside the lens of the officials, digging deeper into the crevices that prevents the community from moving forward.
Two officials: a barangay captain and a barangay councilor were asked the same questions regarding their views about the problems within the community.
Below is a summary of the results gathered.
Table 1. Demographic profile of the respondents.
The table above shows information about the officials who answered the questionnaire along with the position they hold in office. The questionnaire was distributed through an online form accessed by a link provided. As seen from above, both officials came from different barangays in Gerona, Tarlac where Brgy. Captain Amir G. Pascua resides in Sembrano, Gerona, Tarlac and Brgy. Councilor Primitiva I. Tabago reports to the barangay office in Singat, Gerona, Tarlac.
Table 2. Respondents' views regarding issues/problems in their community.
As seen from above are the answers of both officials from the provided questionnaire. From here, we can pick up that the main issues that needed resolving are the Lack of Education and Improper Waste Disposal. In addition to this, the officials were also asked to give a probable solution, from their perspective, to resolve the problem they have mentioned earlier. Brgy. Captain Amir G. Pascua claimed that the problem regarding the lack of education would be solved through providing more scholarship programs especially to those in need.
In 2019, the municipality provided Educational Assistance to 65 high school students and 65 college students in Gerona, Tarlac for the school year 2020-2021. However, this is only a partial amount amongst the large population of the community.
On the other hand, Brgy. Councilor Primitiva I. Tabago claimed that improper garbage disposal can only be solved through discipline of the community members themselves. Though there are no official programs involving this issue, there are several waste-segregation projects and scheduled garbage collection within the municipality.
Conclusion:
In relation to the earlier survey result regarding the community issues as seen by the community members of Gerona, One of the issues mentioned here being Lack of Education can be connected to the common problem named by the citizens which is poverty. Currently, there are an estimated total of 35 schools located in Gerona, Tarlac. 20 being public elementary schools and 8 being public high schools. Only 1 school provides limited college courses which forces some citizens to apply to universities kilometers away from the municipality, only adding to their cost of education. Admittedly, there is not enough opportunity that could cater to the educational needs of the citizens of Gerona, Tarlac confirming the concern of Brgy. Captain Pascua about the lack of education.
As a former resident of the municipality, it is obvious how education is a privilege in these areas. Given that some of the preferred school institutions are privately owned, people that are not that well off find education to be inaccessible. Scholarship grants on the other hand which are supposed to be their only opportunity are limited to a certain number of students, not enough to cover at least half of the community. It is a hard bargain to be granted higher education which only causes certain members of the community to have limited opportunity forcing them into poverty.
On the other hand, improper waste disposal has been an ongoing issue since then. In fact, we can bring ourselves to say that this is a national problem. Issues regarding improper garbage disposals often have population size as a factor. That being known, Gerona having a population of 94,485 people could imply that such issue is not avoidable.
Issues such as this are best addressed from its roots for, officials can only offer temporary solutions to this crisis, not until all community members decided to act collectively to resolve it. It takes a lot of discipline to make such thing work, something that, compared to other mentioned problem, puts community members in the center of the call for resolution this time.
Reference:
LGU Gerona Tarlac. (2022, March 30). Business and Economic Profile. Gerona Tarlac. Retrieved April 7, 2022, from https://geronatarlac.gov.ph/business-and-economic-profile/
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