Comelec to Congress: Decide on barangay, SK elections soon

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) is continuously preparing for the October 23 barangay and Sangguniang Kabataam (SK) elections, in the absence of an official order or declaration regardings its postponement.

“We are not in full speed... We are on schedule with our timeline for the preparations,” Comelec Chairman Andres Bautista said.

The Comelec already said that it is leaving the decision whether or not to defer the October elections to Congress.

Still, Bautista expressed hope that lawmakers will come up with a decision on the matter this July to help save public funds.

“We hope that a decision be made by July,” he said.

“This is so we won’t be wasting money during the preparations,” added Bautista.

In a previous interview, Bautista said he hopes that if the elections are to be postponed, the decision does not come after the start of the printing of official ballots.

“It’s because the ballots will have dates and, therefore, cannot be used anymore. That will be a waste of paper and printing costs,” said Bautista at that time.

Earlier, President Duterte said he wants to again postpone the village polls due to the supposed involvement of a number of barangay leaders in the illegal drugs trade.

There is a pending bill in the Senate seeking to postpone the village and youth polls to October 2018 while the bill at the House of Representatives is looking to reset the said polls exercise to May, 2020.

The law on the postponement of the October 31, 2016 Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections was approved by President Duterte on October 15, 2016.

The law moved the election to October 23, 2017.