This week, I have commissioned another survey interview with two barangay officials of Barangay Bagbaguin, Santa Maria, Bulacan and asked the same questions as my previous interview with some of its residents.
From the same survey-interview questionnaire I gave, I have been given the kind of response that everybody expects to see from an official’s point of view. To be honest, I have expected to get such responses from them, and the results were quite anticlimactic.
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Our two officials also named waste disposal as a primary concern in the community, further reinforcing the resident’s case against the garbage piling up in the streets of the barangay.
However, to their eyes, it was never just the government’s fault. For them, it was their constituents to blame for the waste problem in the barangay as they “lack discipline” and cooperation with the supposed solutions they enacted.
Figure 1 . Respondent #1
A town councilor remarked in the interview that “the solution would be far simpler if the people had discipline.” The same sentiment was echoed by a Barangay Kagawad stating that “they lacked discipline on properly segregating their household wastes.”
Figure 2. Respondent #2
Such remarks from government officials were nothing new, especially during the pandemic with President Rodrigo Duterte himself said in his late-night talk shows that it was always the “discipline” among Filipinos that should be addressed to solve the pressing issues, especially during the height of the pandemic.
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READ: Duterte asks public for 'discipline' in following quarantine rules | Philstar.com
It was a common narrative for the head of government to always “appeal” for discipline and shift the blame to us, ordinary citizens, painting the situation as if our perceived lack of discipline is the root cause of his office’s failure to effectively address our nation’s problems.
READ: The Pasaway and Duterte’s Pandemic Blame Game | Forsea.co
Going back in the community, it does beg the question, is it really because of the lack of people’s discipline that causes such problems to continuously prevail?
On my days at The ECHOES, in an interview way back in 2018 with Santa Maria Mayor Yoyoy Pleyto and Pulong Buhangin Captain Raymund Castañeda, one of the problems discussed was the problem with solid waste management. Around that time, the municipal government cannot dispose of its wastes as landfills around Bulacan had already been filled up. Necessitating the need for the municipality to look for further landfills like one in CALABARZON, thus creating a garbage crisis as collections became less frequent, leading to huge piles in some of Santa Maria’s waste centers.
Houses all around the town would not have their garbage collected for weeks on end, even our school in another Barangay of Pulong Buhangin had to endure the smell of degrading waste materials for days.
From the lenses of Bagbaguin residents, the issue persists up until now, four years later. Given that history, it is safe to say that it was not the residents who lacked ‘discipline’ but rather it was the higher-ups to blame for the failure to effectively address a problem that exists for years. Such systemic blunder by the Local Government Unit and Barangay cannot be alleviated and solved with tack-on solutions like information drives and waste segregation alone.
Regarding discipline, there is no denying that residents not practicing proper waste segregation, disposal and recycling do complicate the problem as such action put further strain on the already fragile and weak waste management system.
Recalling the answers from Blog #1, the youth also saw the lack of proper waste management as residents adding that they also wanted information drives to be conducted for the residents of the barangay on how to manage their garbage. They are fully aware of their responsibility and the lack thereof.
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However, given the situation, would you be encouraged to segregate your wastes only to be rewarded with a painfully slow response? If the government expects something from its citizens, it should do something to reward their cooperation. No, I do not mean rewards but rewards through consistent and commendable public service. The LGU should enact effective programs like enabling a vast network of material recovery facilities and recycling centers to minimize landfill waste output. They could even go as far as banning single-use plastics.
“Rewarding good behavior can work.” Positive reinforcement through effective public service is a great call to action if governments want their people to act “disciplined”. It is quite ironic in the sense that a barangay official cited discipline as a problem when they, themselves, were accused of taking excessive vacation breaks in the midst of their tenure as barangay officials.
Meanwhile, the councilor said that Santa Maria LGU is actively working on solving other persisting issues named by the Blog #1 respondents.
Concluding this two-part blog series, my investigation has bared that both parties saw the same problem and wanted solutions for it. But also showed the disconnect between officials and residents with contradicting ideas on who was to blame for such problems.
On one side, they saw the problem as systemic failure and neglect by those in power while the other saw it as an opportunity to blame the people for their misgivings but not recognizing the fact that the so-called solutions they put in place were not enough.
REFERENCES:
Manlosa, A. (2020). [OPINION] The Philippine problem goes beyond a lack of discipline. Rappler. https://r3.rappler.com/views/imho/260900-opinion-philippine-problem-beyond-lack-discipline
Glasser, W. (1985). Discipline Has Never Been the Problem and Isn’t the Problem Now. Theory Into Practice, 24(4), 241–246. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1477064
Dowding, K. (2020). Governments set the rules – so they shouldn’t blame us for not behaving better. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/governments-set-the-rules-so-they-shouldnt-blame-us-for-not-behaving-better-146031
Regala, J. R. (2018). Brgy. Captain Castañeda calls for unity among PB youth. The ECHOES Volume 26, Number 1, front page.
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