Why we do what we do

“We do what we do because we are willing to pay the price.”

SAN PEDRO, Laguna — Building a community — or should we say, rebuilding a community — is not easy. In fact, that’s a huge understatement, if there is one. That’s the task the current officials of Barangay San Antonio in San Pedro, Laguna have embraced. That’s a task that reads and sounds good on paper, perfect for grandstanding politicians and people of that sort, but a task that is almost a death wish for those who are seriously bent in making it a reality.

Many decades ago, Barangay San Antonio was created behind the vision of a “clean, beautiful, self-sustaining, secure, dynamic, and proactive community.” The vision was compelling enough to attract dreamers like me. We bought into it, mustering whatever we had, so we can start “living the dream.”

But in reality, Barangay San Pedro was a far cry from that vision. At least until five years ago when we still have not yet initiated groundbreaking efforts to improve the community’s condition. Five years ago, going around the barangay, all you will see are the deterioration written all over the village. When I first took the helm as barangay chief, I was greeted by the same problems that have hounded my predecessors, problems which only seem to have gotten worse over time.

Physically, we saw unmaintained areas all over the village. Informal settlers occupied both public and private lands, huge trucks were parked along the highways even at the South Luzon Expressway-San Pedro exit creating hellish traffic jams, many unlit streets in the village were home to drug addicts and favorite dumping grounds for victims of summary executions.

Residents could not careless about the sorry condition of their community. There were too much chaos everywhere!

Perhaps as a consequence of the chaotic environment, some of our residents have unconsciously — with some consciously — started to “blend in” by violating many public laws. Crime rates were very high, including rape, drug pushing and addiction, domestic violence, snatching, mugging, petty crimes, etc.

Barangay San Antonio is supposed to be Laguna’s gateway to Metro Manila and highlight what is the best that the province has to offer but that was not the case. The knee-jerk reflex is to impose a high-handed approach in solving lawlessness and the almost anarchic condition of the village.

But looking deeper into the peace and order situation, as well as the deteriorated physical condition of the barangay is really a confluence of issues that need a more complex and holistic solution.

Internally, within the realm of barangay management, the age-old problem of “kurakot” or corruption is taking away a great amount of much-needed public funds away from those who need them the most.

Given all these problems, we are very certain that solving them would be most welcome.

It is sure, for instance, that the results of a hypothetical survey to find out if people wanted to stay as they are or change for the better, would clearly be to the latter’s favor. Of course, who doesn’t want to lead a better life?

That is hypothetical because change, specifically the upward type, is always met with resistance. Quite bluntly, it is hard to change for the better. People, generally speaking, simply find the price too much to pay. The pull of staying with the present seems to be stronger than the thought of pushing for something better in the future. In essence, this is the biggest problem that we, barangay officials, are facing.

To achieve the vision by which Barangay San Antonio was created, decisive actions should be taken. And sometimes, that means making decisions that are detrimental to a few but favorable to the greater cause. The management approach should try to achieve a solution that caters to everybody’s wishes but almost always fails to achieve its objective. Truly, we have resigned ourselves to accept that we cannot please everybody.

We do what we do because at this level of societal governance, we believe that to engage in a popularity contest is not the way to go. A position in the barangay has been falsely perceived to be a position of power and authority. It certainly is very from such. In all truth, it is a thankless, selfless endeavor meant perhaps for people who are passionate enough to sacrifice their time and resources in order to pursue a greater cause.

We do what we do because we are willing to pay the price.

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