DILG backs bill limiting barangay population

May 10, 2020

The Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) expressed support on Sunday on the bill limiting the population of every barangay to 15,000 in all urban areas of the country.

In a radio interview, DILG Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya said the proposal of 2nd District Surigao del Norte Representative Ace Barbers is a good idea and should be studied.

“We think the proposal of Representative Barbers is good. We noticed that (the number of residents) in each barangay is not equal,” he said.

“It’s time to study the size of barangay (population),” he added.

Barbers filed House Bill 6686 seeking to amend Section 386 of the Local Government Code which imposes a minimum requirement of 2,000 inhabitants for a barangay to be created and 5,000 population in Metro Manila and other metropolitan areas and highly-urbanized areas.

All existing barangays in urban areas with a population of over 15,000 will be reapportioned to create additional barangays.

Malaya said barangays, like Barangay Silang in Caloocan with huge population, need to be split into different barangays, while some like in Manila need to be merged to help especially in distributing government assistance.

“It’s a lot of work. This will not be (implemented) immediately but I think this is something we need to do already,” he said.

But he said this needs consultation as it may have implication and political considerations.

“I think the delivery of services will be faster if the number of residents is manageable,” he added.

In a separate radio interview, Barbers said the number of population could affect the smooth delivery of social services in a barangay.

“Based on our experience right now, distributing cash assistance was already extended many times and despite that a lot of people were still complaining,” he said.

He, however, said the proposed number of population in a barangay can still change depending on the decision of Congress. Ella Dionisio/DMS