The ‘little’ barangay that could

A barangay is traditionally perceived as a small political unit that oversees community affairs in a mostly residential area.

But when a barangay is all 270 hectares, is located at the heart of the Makati Central Business District (CBD), earns about P100 million in taxes and clearances, and has jurisdiction over the likes of Ayala Center, Makati Medical Center, 14 headquarters of the top 100 corporations, embassies, three big schools and four major hotels – that certainly is no small barangay.

Barangay San Lorenzo in Makati City encompasses all of the above – and more. While some people think that this barangay only include San Lorenzo Village, it actually covers the whole area bound by EDSA, Ayala Ave (on the right side), and Pasong Tamo up to Mantrade.

Realizing the significance not only of the area but the potentials of further developing it and maintaining its current status as one of the richest barangays in the country, the officers of Barangay San Lorenzo mobilized the Barangay San Lorenzo Business Association (BSLBA).

"Prodded by a memorandum from the city government of Makati enjoining barangays to organize their respective business associations and cultivate a strategic partnership between the public and private sectors that would stimulate and promote business, we buckled down to work," says barangay secretary Ernie Moya who initially headed the board of trustees.

BLSBA is under the umbrella of Makati Liga ng mga Barangay Business Development Council.

Later, the business community operating in the barangay were invited to join. At present, the board is headed by its president Ana Maria Tanchanco of Taters Enterprises, Ma. Corazon Lopez and Marlene Po of Assumption College, and Ma. Liza Guillermo of Metrobank and Bgy. chairman Jay Santiago.

Government and business do mix

"We always have this notion that government and business do not mix. Many businessmen perceived government as cause of delay, of red tape, etc. With BSLBA, we want to synergize all efforts between private and public sectors and serve the needs of the business community," Tanchanco declares.

About 8,000 registered businesses in this barangay may now look at BSLBA as a channel of change in the area. Of these, 36 percent are categorized as large, including leaders in the trading, telecommunications, oil, retail, real estate, service, restaurant, holding and service industries.

The rest are small and medium enterprises and through these SMEs that BSLBA primarily looks at representing in the government.

"The market coverage is overwhelming – from the renowned multinational businesses to the micro-entrepreneurs. We also want to foster a Big Brother-Small Brother relationship, where assistance from big businesses like PLDT or Ayala in terms of know-how or training programs can be facilitated towards the smaller ones," Tanchanco adds.

Among BSLBA’s priority projects are organizing business interactions through fora for discussion and exchange of relevant business and community information; putting up effective training programs for improvement of business skills; and most importantly, encouraging corporate social responsibility.

In 2004, the barangay earned P94 million from business clearance and real property tax income alone. This year, just from January to May, the income has already reached about P51 million, a clear indication that business in the area is burgeoning. Barangay officer Bernie Atienza, also of Shoppers Paradise Realty, confirms this. "There is about 60 percent increase in the number of businesses in the area," Atienza says.

Prompted by news that Quezon City is set to established its own CBD and the fact that some manufacturing companies are transferring to the outskirts of Manila like Sta. Rosa in Laguna to consolidate their operations, barangay chairman Santiago says BSLBA is all the more inspired to work together and "keep it together."

"The thing also is we organized because we want to remain at the top, we want to keep this status as being the core area of business – in the country. And we can only do this if we are sure that the stakeholders – the businesses operating in the area – have a close partnership with us," says the 29-year old barangay chairman.

Atienza stresses that both the barangay and BSLBA have trained their sights on this objective. A masterplan for instance, drawn up by Architect Jun Palafox, is set to reinvent the community to make it attractive to both business and urban dwellers. In this masterplan, the inputs of the stakeholders have been carefully solicited.