No-barangay polls readied

Alvarez: Congress to clothe Duterte with power to appoint village chairmen only

The presidential appointment of barangay officials will be limited to punong barangay posts or chairmen, and will not include village legislators, known as kagawad.

This was gathered yesterday as Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez directed his staff to draft the legislative proposal that will postpone the October, 2017, barangay elections. In lieu of the elections, the bill will clothe the President with the power to appoint new barangay chairmen who will fill up the vacancies within a month of congressional sessions.

“Barangay captain (chairman) lang ang i-aapoint, wala nang kagawad,” Alvarez disclosed yesterday. (Only barangay captains will be appointment, no more kagawad)

Alvarez assured that Congress has enough time to the measure.

In a radio interview yesterday, Alvarez dismissed concerns

Congress may not have enough time to pass the necessary law to amend the Local Government Code to postpone the barangay elections set for October this year.

The House leader, who had a similar proposal before the passage last year of bill that canceled the October, 2016 barangay polls, stressed that the swift approval of the measure may be guaranteed if Duterte certifies the proposal as an urgent administration measure.

“Hindi po lalo na kapag na-certify as urgent ng ating Pangulo,” Alvarez told a radio interview.

Alvarez said Congress needs to pass the amendatory law to authorize the Commission on Elections to postpone the October barangay polls.

Alvarez believes that the supermajority coalition in the House will support President Duterte’s proposal, saying that so far he has not received any word expressing opposition against the idea from any member of the majority.

Although Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers has beaten him to the draw by filing earlier his own version of Duterte’s proposal, Alvarez appeared unperturbed and has directed his staff to prepare his own version. The House leader said he will file the bill in time for the resumption of regular session on May 2.

Alvarez, in his proposal for the cancellation of the October, 2016 polls, he also proposed the abolition of the kagawad posts or barangay councilmen. In their stead, the kagawad will be replaced by appointed purok leaders who will represent their respective areas in the barangay.

Alvarez’s proposal was not formalized into a bill after it became apparent that Congress was running out of time to pass a postponement measure prior to the scheduled October, 2016, barangay elections.

Earlier, President Duterte warned that if the October barangay election pushes through, many village officials with ties to the drug trade would likely get re-elected. Instead, the President said he wants the polls postponed and fill the vacant positions by appointment.

“There is a need to postpone the 2017 Barangay Elections to rid barangays of officials linked to illegal drug operations. The barangay election was postponed last year for the very same reason, and obviously, we have yet to consider our communities drug-free,” said Barbers, who filed House Bill No. 5359 that proposes to postpone the October, 2017, Barangay Elections.

“The drug problem begins at the grassroots level, therefore, this is where we should start cleansing,” he added.

Barbers also concurred with Duterte’s intention of replacing the sitting Barangay officials with his own appointed officers-in-charge (OICs).

The Mindanao solon believes that President will be able to pick “untainted” OICs.

“We have given them another year, but the question is, have they proven themselves worthy to be called ‘leaders’ of a country that is dying to be freed from the shackles of illegal drugs? I don’t think so,” Barbers said.

“That is why, I personally think that the smartest move would be to delay the elections once again and to appoint incorruptible officers-in-charge who will help us traverse the road to recovery – the road to a drug-free Philippines,” Barbers stressed.

Sta. Rosa City Mayor Dan Fernandez said he does not interpose any objection to Duterte’s proposal.

Parañaque City Rep. Gus Tambunting also backed the proposal, noting that politics has “heavily influenced what should be an apolitical institution” in barangay units.

“There is a critical need to address this, and for this reason, I believe the elections should be postponed to give way to these amendments,” he said.

Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III said he needs to meet with President Duterte on his proposal to declare all barangay positions vacant and allow him to appoint their replacements.

“Whether the barangay elections can be postponed, medyo ang gut feel namin doon it can be done kasi it was done before. So other part, the President can appoint the barangay officials, yan ang pag-aaralan namin,” Pimentel told Senate reporters. (Our gut feel is that the barangay elections scheduled in October can be done because it was done before. We will study the issue of whether the President can appoint the new barangay officials.)

However, Father Jerome Secillano of the Nuestra Senora del Perpetuo Socorro Parish in Manila said he is not in favor of the idea of church leaders nominating candidates for barangay as proposed by President Duterte.

The President had earlier said he would accept nominations from the Catholic Church, from Islamic leaders, religious denominations, and other organizations.

“Even if the nominees will be named by the religious sector, this practice of appointing them smacks of patronage politics,” he said in an interview.

But Alvarez reiterated his support for the position of President Duterte.

“Valid naman po yung objective ng ating Pangulo,” Alvarez said.

To ensure faster deliberation and approval of the proposal, Alvarez said he intends to talk to Department of the Interior and Local Government Secretary Ismael Sueno and Senate President Pimentel.

Duterte had admitted that his plan to appoint barangay officials to fill the vacant posts would be “quite messy” because incumbent barangay officials would likely oppose the move.

According to the President, the first requirement for a barangay officer-in-charge nominee is that they should not have any connections at all with rebels. Second, is that they are not into drugs, and lastly, they are not really leaders of politicians. (With reports from Charissa M. Luci, Mario B. Casayuran, and Leslie Ann G. Aquino)