After four months of absence, the community outreach program of the Laoag City government, more popularly known as the Rang-ay Ti Barangay program, is set to restart on May 16. The Rang-ay Ti Barangay program had been a brainchild of former Laoag City Mayor Rodolfo C. Fariñas, and which had been continued by his successors as it aims to bring the city government closer to the people in the city’s far-flung barangays as well as in the urban barangays. The program also affords city residents to bring their concerns personally to the officials in charge as the Rang-ay Ti Barangay sessions usually is attended by the city mayor, councilors and department heads of the city government. Laoag City Mayor Michael V. Fariñas vowed that for this year, all of the city’s 80 barangays would be visited as he disclosed that three barangays would be visited this year compared to only two barangays in previous years. This change, Fariñas explained, was to accommodate all of the city’s barangays and was also partly due to the late passage of the 2006 annual budget. “Alangan met nga si-iima nga awan pulos iggem mi ket no ngarud adda ag-request ti anyaman ana ngarud ti armas mi (We could not have gone to the barangays empty-handed for what if they would request for something, what would we give them),” the mayor expounded. Last year, three barangays—Barangays 24, Cavit and Balacad—were not served by the Rang-ay Ti Barangay program. According to Joseph Tamayo, community affairs officer, this was because the barangay chairmen of the said barangays were not in the city when it was their schedule and when they were in the city, it would be the mayor who would be on official business outside the city. As a result, Tamayo said the three barangays would be prioritized for this year as they had been scheduled for May 16, 17 and 18 respectively. The budget for the Rang-ay Ti Barangay program falls under the 20 percent development fund and has an appropriated P4,500,000 for urban and P12,500,000 for rural barangays this year. Ms Carlina Cumigad, city budget officer, is hopeful that the Rang-ay Ti Barangay budget for this year would be enough to cover all the requests of the city’s 80 barangays. Dominic B. dela Cruz
|
|