Establishing Community Database

Importance of Databased in Community

We all know that the barangay is the smallest unit of the community here is another of interesting ideas that Mr. Ike Señeres stated in his social media post and in this post you'll learn more creative ideas that can enchanced a community.

REBUILDING THE BARANGAY DATABASES

Developing Community Database

Generally speaking, many of the barangay databases are corrupted simply because some corrupt barangay officials allowed their own staff to manipulate the data to suit their own personal and political agendas.

As a result, many of these databases were populated with data about their own friends and relatives, regardless of whether they are indigents or not, and actually regardless of whether they are actually residing within the barangay or not.

That might sound like bad news to you, but what is worse than that is the fact that some barangay do not have databases at all, as in none or zero.

Having a corrupted database is a problem that might have escaped our attention before; perhaps we even shrugged it off as a political matter that did not concern us at all.

That was the situation then, but the situation is completely different now.

So suddenly and before we could even react to it, these corrupted databases are the ones that are now being used as the basis to distribute cash gifts and grocery items to those who are supposedly indigents, OFW dependents, physically handicapped, solo parents or who are senior citizens.

As far as I know however, there are no official or standard criteria in determining whether a person is indigent or not.

In theory, the other categories of OFW dependents, physically handicapped, solo parents and senior citizens are really just subsets of the overall database, but I doubt very much whether these subsets ever existed at all. Being solo parents would be difficult to prove, because there is no way of certifying it except to show their supposed children, but there could also be fake kids just as there is fake news.

As I understand it, only indigent seniors could qualify, because being a senior does not necessarily mean that one is an indigent.

That being the case, indigent seniors could actually be a sub-subset of the broader subset of indigents.

Given all of these problems, I made it my goal to look for a solution, and towards that end, I was very lucky to meet Mr. Ferdenand Sabado, who happens to be the principal owner of Yaramay Computer Services.

Wearing my hat as a systems integrator, I convinced him to design a web application that could be used to build completely new barangay databases, starting from scratch, hence the title “rebuilding”.

Under normal circumstances, it would be practical to simply purge or cleanse a corrupt database, but in some cases, that would already be impractical if the database is hopelessly beyond purging or cleansing.

What is my assurance that the data corruption will not happen again? My answer to that is very simple.

We have designed the web application in such a way that any data entry into the database would automatically trigger a command that would send copies of the new entries to the Local Government Units (LGUs), the DILG, the DOLE and to the DSWD.

In other words, there would be multiple copies made of the new barangay databases, and under normal circumstances, it would be very difficult to corrupt it again, not unless there is connivance between two or more of the five parties involved.

I often like to say that I am just one man, one private person who is powerless to solve the problems of this country that are much bigger than me.

I know one thing however, that my knowledge of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) is a gift that God has given to me, and it is my duty to use my God given talents for the good of my country.

I also know that I am not the only one who loves this country.

So now, the challenge is how to rebuild the databases in every barangay, all 42,000 of them, more or less.

I am ready to donate the web application to all the barangay, but I need volunteers who will not only help the barangay in this transformation, but also to watch over their shoulders, so that the data will not be corrupted again.