Move to give honorarium to Lupon directors junked

CEBU, Philippines - The Cebu City Council committee on laws has rejected the request of the directors of the Liga ng mga Lupong Tagapamayapa for a P1,000 honorarium for each of them.

Councilor Edgardo Labella, the chairman of the five-man committee that studied the request of the Liga ng mga Lupong Tagapamayapa, said it would be questionable for the city to grant such incentive because the league is not a government entity.

According to Labella, the league of barangay mediators composed of non-active former Lupon members of different barangays in the city is considered a private association.

“It is a basic principle in the law governing the disbursement of public funds that government funds can be disbursed or spent only for a public purpose,” Labella said in his committee report.

Labella, who used to be a director of the Ombudsman Visayas before he joined politics in 1998, said the Local Government Code provides that the payment of honoraria to the members of Lupong Tagapamayapa limits only to active members.

He added that the directors of the Liga ng mga Lupong Tagapamayapa are not active members of the Lupon, but only of the Liga, which is considered a mere private association.

The Lupong Tagapamayapa is the barangay justice system whose members are tasked to hear conflicts involving the constituents of the barangays. It would come up with a possible reconciliation, mediation and arbitration between the parties involved.

The law provides that in every barangay, there should be at least 10 but not more than 20 members of Lupong Tagapamayapa who may receive honorarium for their voluntary service.

Because many of the city’s 80 barangays cannot afford to give honorariums to their Lupon members, the city officials granted them an additional P1,000 honorarium a month.

It can be recalled that Lupon members in the city who served from 2004 to 2006 had been adjudged by Malacañang - through the recommendation of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) - as the best in the country.

The Liga ng mga Lupong Tagapamayapa in the city is holding refresher courses or seminars for barangay mediators so they will be effective in their jobs.

DILG city director Patricio Gabuya said the Lupon members help decongest the court dockets, a task that enables the government to save millions of funds. — Rene U. Borromeo/LPM (THE FREEMAN)