Mayor supports move to split Caloocan barangay into seven

MANILA, Philippines - After a series of public hearings, Caloocan City Mayor Oscar Malapitan said yesterday he will support an appeal by residents to divide Barangay Bagong Silang into seven barangays.

Malapitan attended a series of weekly public consultations where there was an overwhelming call to split the village to allow for better delivery of services.

“The people have spoken and they would want the local government to immediately act on this,” he said.

Bagong Silang is considered the largest barangay, not only in the city but the entire country in terms of population density and land area, city officials said.

It currently has a population of more than 245,000 residents or 49,000 households and a land area of 524.68 square hectares. Its population represents approximately 16.1 percent of the city’s inhabitants. 

Bagong Silang, comprising Phases 1 to 10, is located at the northern part of Caloocan. It has been a government resettlement site since the early 1970s, and is bounded in the north and west by the Marilao River, Barangay 175 in the south and Barangay 186 in the east.

Under Section 385 of the Local Government Code, a barangay in Metro Manila may be divided through a city council ordinance, subject to the approval by a majority of the votes cast in a plebiscite conducted by the Commission on Elections in the local government unit directly affected, provided that each newly created barangay has a population of 5,000 inhabitants certified by the National Statistics Office.

During the hearings, some residents expressed their preference for the division of Bagong Silang because they felt that a lone barangay chairman serving 245,000 inhabitants is inappropriate and inefficient.

They said increasing the number of barangay officials would allow for more focus on the performing of their duties and better interaction with the residents.