Unease in a rich village

As most everyone knows it, running for office, and/or staying in it, can be troublesome. A young politician, Joshua John Santiago, knows that by now, even if his empire is just a village in a barangay in Makati City. But, hold your horses, man, San Lorenzo Village is no ordinary village. It is the richest village in the country, with an income projected this year to reach P127 million.

Barangay San Lorenzo’s income comes mainly from business and real property taxes, not from the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA), which is a mere P400,000 per year. The financial lifeline of the village is such establishments within its relatively small land area of only 269.3 hectares as the Glorietta and Greenbelt malls, Landmark, New World Hotel, Ascott (formerly Oakwood) Hotel, Inter-Continental Hotel, Shangri-La Hotel, Makati Medical Center and the head offices of Philippine Long Distance Telephone, Bank of the Philippine Islands, and Allied Bank, among others.

The village’s huge income enables it to spend P40 million a year for the salaries of barangay council officials, 20 office and maintenance personnel, 60 tanods (security personnel), and two nurses, plus professional fees for nine doctors serving in the village medical clinic.

It also maintains various projects for the residents — 6,487, of whom a good part belongs to the upper bracket of Philippine society — such as livelihood and skills enhancement programs; training workshops in soap-making, cooking and baking, cosmetology and hair science, computer and Web site designing and repair of electrical appliances and cellular phones. It also has educational and cultural programs on education, culture and community affairs, value formation, women advocacy, ballroom dancing, yoga, film appreciation, fruits and vegetable and flower arrangements.

Under Santiago’s incumbency, the barangay has given financial assistance and donations to the San Lorenzo Village Association (P17.8 million for garbage collection, P36 million for security services and P15-million for electricity), the Paluwagan ng Bayan P7 million, Ayala Center Association (P10 million for garbage collection) and Makati Commercial Estate Association (P3 million for the redevelopment of the Washington Sycip Park and P12 million for electricity).

Over lunch with some members of media, Santiago said that the barangay still has a P73 million surplus from the previous year’s budget which should have been spent on projects, but which has remained in the bank when he was placed under preventive suspension.

It’s perhaps because of the successful projects he initiated that have made Chairman Santiago, 34, the object of complaints of some members of the village council, which led to his preventive suspension.

In 2009, members filed an administrative complaint against Santiago for alleged dishonesty and misconduct in the disbursement of funds for some projects. The complainants lodged their complaint with the Makati city council. They questioned the purchase of 1,200 lamp posts for P44 million, and why 670 of them were not installed.

The purchase of the posts had been recommended after the extensive damage to street lights caused by typhoon Milenyo in 2006, by the Makati Commercial Estate Association and a committee of three councilmen, and approved by the barangay Sanggunian (in Resolution 141 on Nov. 24, 2006). Santiago was not a member of the bidding committee that endorsed the approval.

Santiago said a kagawad, the son of one of the complainants in the complaint filed before the Ombudsman, who supervised the installation of the lamp posts, should be made to explain why 670 of the purchased 1,200 lamp posts were not installed.

Santiago, who had been elected barangay chairman in 2004, also had to clear his name when questioned why only P215 million of the P615 million budget earmarked for community projects from 2005 to 2007 was spent. Santiago was puzzled by the charge, since the village budget had gone through the Makati City Council for approval. He said that the Commission on Audit had cleared him of any liability in the issue, and that the audited financial report had been posted at the barangay hall for interested parties to check.

The Makati City Council conducted three public hearings on the lamp posts case, then slapped a 90-day preventive suspension on Santiago on Jan. 16, 2009. Thereupon Santiago appealed his case to the Office of the President which ordered the lifting of the suspension. According to Santiago, he resumed his duties, “determined to pursue the projects interrupted by (my) absence and unfazed by the vigorous objections of (my) detractors who wanted (me) continuously grounded.”

With Santiago back at his post, the complainants trooped to the San Lorenzo Village home of then Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, who reportedly advised that the case be brought to the Office of the Ombudsman. Meanwhile, the unfazed Santiago holds sway in the barangay chairman’s office, reiterating that there was nothing anomalous about the acquisition of the lamp posts, and that he was the object of mudslinging to demolish his reputation, and advance the political ambition of his detractors, who are interested in grabbing his post in the coming barangay elections.

The reason Santiago asked some media representatives to lunch was that stories favoring his detractors had come out in some publications, but his side was never published by said publications.

Santiago was a kagawad in the Sangguniang Kabataan of San Lorenzo, from 1996 to 1998. Then he ran for chairman in 2004, which post he holds up to the present. He worked for the family jewelry business after finishing the agri-business management course at the University of the Philippines-Los Banos. He is a member of the UP Upsilon Sigma Phi. He earned his high school and elementary diplomas from Faith Christian School and Christian Academy of Manila, respectively.

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On another front, Zenaida Duran Bennett, chair of the Silliman University Alumni Council of North America (SUACONA) has been sending emails announcing the installation of the council’s treasurer, Dr. Gideon Alegado, as president of Gingoog Christian College (Formerly Gingoog Institute ) in Gingoog City.

Zenaida writes that Kuya Box, as he is called by close friends, “left his comfortable retirement in Corvallis, Oregon, to head the school founded by his father and nurtured over the years by a strong adherence to Christian values. It has since grown in presence and stature, and its growth necessitated a new and more dynamic leadership to carry on its noble goals and mission. Kuya Box fits the bill perfectly, with his brilliant background in the academe, his reassuring interpersonal skills, and his outstanding leadership as gleaned from his long and rewarding stewardships in Siliman University, Oregon State University, and SUACONA.”

On his election, Kuya Box said, “When the need calls, those of us who have been so blessed cannot help but respond and pass on such blessings especially to the least fortunate. Serving the young by providing them with opportunities for improved tomorrows seems to be a mission we’d love to invest in and pursue.”

Those who wish to communicate with Kuya Box may e-mail him at [email protected].

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My e-mail:[email protected]