Palace: Duterte may amend current law to appoint barangay officials

PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte can appoint roughly 42,000 barangay chairmen by amending the current law governing the conduct of barangay elections, Malacañang said Monday.

Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella, in a statement, said Duterte’s plan to postpone barangay elections scheduled in October this year “to get rid” of barangay captains allegedly involved in drugs may materialize, if the current law is amended. “Moving the schedule of the barangay elections, which is scheduled October this year, needs an amendment of the law. Without this new law, barangay elections will push through,” Abella said in a statement.

“The passage of a new law postponing the barangay elections will make all barangay positions vacant. Therefore, according to the Administrative Code of the Philippines, it is within the powers of the President to fill up declared vacant positions,” he added.

The President earlier sought to cancel barangay elections scheduled on October 30, lamenting that 40 percent of barangay officials are linked to illegal drugs.

It could be recalled that Duterte had already postponed the baranggay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections supposedly set on October 30, 2016 due to the same concern that barangay chairpersons are involved in narcotics trade.

Duterte, however, was still amenable to pushing through the barangay elections, only if the candidates “have no conditions with rebels and are not into drugs.”

Abella said the current administration will still study the possible effects of declaring barangay positions vacant and appointing barangay officials.

“On the issue that the postponement of barangay elections will impinge on the people’s rights to vote or disenfranchise voters to register the people’s right to vote must be carefully weighed against the possibility that a number of barangay officials with links to the illegal drug trade may unwittingly be elected into office, given the sad state of patronage in local politics,” he said. SunStar Philippines