Capabilities and Challenges Encountered by Barangay Officials of Selected Barangays in Dipolog City on Local Budgeting Process

The present political landscape of Dipolog City presented an interesting setting for the study. The researchers assessed the capabilities and challenges faced by barangay officials in connection with their sex, age, position, years of experience, and educational attainment. Extensive discussion on various legal frameworks governing the local budgeting process which allows barangay officials to participate were provided for contextualization. Sixty barangay officials in Dipolog City served as respondents of this quantitative research and findings indicate that barangay officials were much capable in all areas of the local budgeting process characterizing the phases of budget preparation, budget authorization, budget execution, and budget accountability. The capabilities of barangay officials were not significantly different depending on the respondent’s profile. The phases of budget preparation, budget authorization, and budget accountability were deemed by the respondents to be "moderately challenging," and categorized budget execution as "highly challenging". Barangay officials assessed the difficulties they encountered in creating the local budget to be "moderately challenging". Based on their sex, age, position, years of experience, and educational attainment, it was discovered that the respondents' opinions of the local budgeting process did not differ significantly from one another.