DILG won’t make list of underperforming mayors, barangay chiefs in road clearing

Rambo Talabong

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DILG won’t make list of underperforming mayors, barangay chiefs in road clearing
Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya says clearing roads is not comparable with the anti-drug drive, where officials are threatened with administrative and criminal complaints

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) will forgo using its usual tool for pushing mayors to align with its agenda: lists.

“No, definitely not,” DILG Undersecretary and Spokesman Jonathan Malaya said in a Rappler Talk interview on Monday, August 19, when asked whether the agency would repeat the infamous drug list approach to deal with underperforming barangay officials and mayors in the road-clearing operations in cities.

According to Malaya, the DILG would just release “percentage” of local government units which have shown “substantial compliance” to the DILG’s order for mayors to clear roads across the country up until mid-September.

“[For example], in NCR (National Capital Region), this number of LGUs have shown substantial compliance; for another it may have lower points. That’s what we’ll do for now,” Malaya said in a mix of English and Filipino.

A change of heart? According to Malaya, clearing roads is not comparable with the anti-drug drive, where the department threatened drug-linked mayors with administrative and criminal complaints. (READ: Duterte releases drug list ahead of 2019 elections)

“For this one, they have a deadline of 60 days; for clearing drugs, they have no deadline. So let’s be fair to them,” Malaya said.

Malaya also stressed that road-clearing initiatives are more difficult because clearing roads could mean the loss of livelihood for thousands of street vendors, and even the demolition of government buildings.

Wala muna kaming lista-listahan, kasi mahirap po ang maging government official (We won’t have these lists for now because it’s difficult being a government official). And I can feel for these mayors,” Malaya said. – Rappler.com

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Rambo Talabong

Rambo Talabong covers the House of Representatives and local governments for Rappler. Prior to this, he covered security and crime. He was named Jaime V. Ongpin Fellow in 2019 for his reporting on President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs. In 2021, he was selected as a journalism fellow by the Fellowships at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics.