A ''purok'' ( en, district or zone) is a division within a

barangay A barangay (; abbreviated as Brgy. or Bgy.), historically referred to as barrio (abbreviated as Bo.), is the smallest administrative division in the Philippines and is the native Filipino term for a village, district, or ward. In metropolit ...

in the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

. While not officially considered a

local government unit Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-loca ...

(LGU), a purok often serves as a unit for delivering services and administration within a barangay. A ''purok'' is typically composed of twenty to fifty or more households, depending on the particular geographical location and cluster of houses. The term purok is often applied to a neighborhood (zone) within an urbanized barangay, or a portion (district) of a less densely populated, but still relatively geographically compact, barangay. This contrasts with the '' sitio'', which is usually a cluster of households (

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depi ...

) in a more dispersed, rural barangay. If created and given a mandate by an ordinance of the barangay, municipality, or city, a purok could perform government functions under the coordination and supervision of their local officials. Sometimes, a member of the Sangguniang Barangay (Barangay Council) may be recognized as the leader of their purok. New barangays are often created by officially enumerating which puroks and/or sitios are included within the territory. On rare occasions, a ''purok'' may also be enumerated in the creation of a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality ...

, as in the case of Shariff Saydona Mustapha, Maguindanao where the puroks of Libutan East and Pagatin I were directly named as one of the constituent parts of the new municipality. These two puroks were later recognized as full-fledged barangays by the

Philippine Statistics Authority The Philippine Statistics Authority ( Filipino: ''Pangasiwaan ng Estadistika ng Pilipinas''), abbreviated as PSA, is the central statistical authority of the Philippine government that ''collects, compiles, analyzes and publishes statistical in ...

in early 2010.

References

Barangays of the Philippines Subdivisions of the Philippines Tagalog words and phrases {{philippines-stub

See also

References