MANILA, Philippines – The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) on Thursday, October 22, said it was filing show cause orders to around 80 barangay captains of the city of Manila who failed to clear their areas of road obstructions.

The DILG, acting on a directive of President Rodrigo Duterte, gave local government units 60 days to clear roads of obstructions. 

The DILG then validated the compliance of LGUs, scoring how thoroughly they followed the directive.

Based on the latest validation, Manila only scored medium compliance for clearing primary and secondary roads across the city, which is composed of 897 barangays. 

DILG Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya said that compliance marks rely on the two levels of the city government.

“We realize that LGUs are two levels, barangay and LGU. And without the cooperation of the barangay, it doesn’t really work. So if you want to sustain the road clearing, we have to send a message also to the barangay captains that [they] have an important role to play,” Malaya said.

He said Manila Mayor Isko Moreno supported the move to query barangay captains.  “He understands that whatever he does, without the cooperation of the barangay captains, hindi magiging successful (it won’t be successful),” Malaya said.

If the barangay captains fail to explain the reason for their lack of cooperation, they can face suspension for negligence, misconduct, and derelection of duty, said Malaya.

“It’s their duty to enforce the law, it’s their duty to enforce the ordinances passed by the city of Manila, and most importantly, it’s their duty to heed the President’s directive of clearing the roads of obstructions,” he said.

The DILG would announce the names of the implicated barangay captains on October 22. 

So far, 97 mayors are set to receive show cause orders for failing to comply with the directive. – Rappler.com