Each town in the Philippines is divided
into “barangays” and each baranguay has a series of officials.
Officials, mayors, governors are given a lot of respect here and
there are posters dedicated to them in towns. We were lucky enough
to meet an official once. She did massages at the beach resort we
stayed at in Bicol and this is how she introduced herself: “I am
Jinkey. I am San Pedro barangay official, Santo Domingo” The
population of Santo Domingo must have been no more than 5000 and it's
not unusual to have more than 20 Barangays and subdivisions or
“sitios”.
