In the most populous barangay in the "Rising City" of San Jose Del Monte, Bulacan, which is Barangay Muzon, I’ve had my first-hand encounter with problems that I would categorize as prevalent and needing to be addressed. As a former resident of the said community, I think it is somehow my responsibility to amplify the stories and my fair-share of experiences about all of the community issues that this barangay is currently dealing with.
With a whopping number of 127,506, that represents 19.56% of the city’s total population according to the 2020 census. It is not hard to identify important community problems that should be addressed and prioritized in terms of delivering answers and developing plans to mitigate or resolve these concerns.
I’ve lived five years of my life in this community. I wouldn’t define it as a hell-hole nor a heavenly place, but probably a fusion of both. I’ve seen the finest of it, but I wouldn’t deny that it can be somehow catastrophic. And with the help of my respondents, let us all figure out the existing and unimagined community issues in Barangay Muzon as we dive into the results of an online survey identifying the prevalent community concerns that should be addressed and prioritized to transcend over the horizons.
The graphic and list below provide a fast summary of the survey findings.
The respondents
There are no given important instructions into whom the respondents are; the only concern that should be followed is that they all belong to a certain community.
Figure 1. The Age Tally of the Respondents.
Out of 9 respondents from the said community, the majority of the respondents are 20 years old which represents 44.4%, 33.3% of the respondents are 19 years old, and 22.2% of the respondents are 18 years old.
The Common Community Issues
Even though the respondents came from almost the same age group they provided a wide spectrum of community concerns that they think are prevalent in their barangay.
Figure 2. Tally of the Common Community Issues in Barangay Muzon According to the Respondents.
Majority of the respondents believe that “Traffic and Poverty” are the most common community issues in their barangay, followed by “Teenage Pregnancy, Garbage Segregation, and Drug Related Crimes” , next are “Unemployment, Overpopulation, and Out of School Youth”, and at last are “ Gender Inequality, Endless Road Construction, Disobedience of Health Protocols, Mismanagement of Resources, Barangay Officials Incompetency, Accessible Healthcare, and Poor Water Service”.
The Common Community Issues that should be Prioritized
Out of all the community concerns that the respondents think are prevalent in their barangay, it narrowed down to 7 specific community concerns that the respondents think should be addressed and prioritized.
Figure 3. Tally of the Common Community Issues that should be Prioritized in Barangay Muzon According to the Respondents.
According to the tally of the respondents' answers on what are the common community issues among their barangay that should be prioritized, it is clear that “Teenage Pregnancy and Poverty” are the leading issues that the respondents think should be prioritized.
Conclusion and Interpretation
The respondents helped me in determining that the most prevalent community issues among the barangay are "teenage pregnancy and poverty," which I believe are also widespread community concerns, not just in that specific community but throughout the country. According to the Philippine Statistics Authority's 2021 FEIS or Family Income and Expenditure Survey, 23.4 percent of the Philippine population is poor, with per capita income insufficient to cover basic food and non-food requirements, totaling 26.14 million Filipinos. Meanwhile, 9.9 percent of Filipinos, or 10.94 million people, do not have enough money to meet even their most basic food needs.According to the "Save the Children's Global Childhood Report from 2019," the country has an estimated 6% of Filipino girls affected by adolescent pregnancy, which is the second highest rate in Southeast Asia, and the Philippine Statistics Authority concluded in their 2017 report that 538 babies are born to Filipino teenage mothers "every single day."
These statistics about "teenage pregnancy and poverty" only show that these community issues are prevalent not just in one community but across the country, and I agree that they should be prioritized in terms of mitigating and mapping out plans to decrease and hopefully eradicate these concerns, which should be addressed with proper plans, solutions, and actions not just from the community but with the support of the local and national government. And, as a member of a certain community, I believe I can make a difference by teaching and proposing initiatives such as raising awareness and offering accurate information on sex and poverty education using social media platforms. I believe that by making these simple efforts, we can start dialogues and, ultimately, make real change.
References:
Philippine Statistics Authority. (2021, December 17). Proportion of Poor Filipinos Registered at 23.7 Percent in the First Semester of 2021. psa.gov.ph. Retrieved March 28, 2022, from https://psa.gov.ph/content/proportion-poor-filipinos-registered-237-percent-first-semester-2021
Philippine Orphanage Foundation. (2020, August 29). WHY SO MANY ORPHANS? filipino-orphans.org. Retrieved March 28, 2022, from https://www.filipino-orphans.org/why-so-many-orphans-part-2/?gclid=CjwKCAjwloCSBhAeEiwA3hVo_WQR-3VipHFS-_FFPH4ZP-ml67pGtmL25yxnJgPkEuT91cOYJ8ZqQhoCYBwQAvD_BwE
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