House panel postpones barangay, SK polls again

THE House committee on suffrage and electoral reforms has decided to postpone again the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections to October 8, 2018.

While the House committee is deliberating on the four bills seeking the postponement of the upcoming elections, Deputy Speaker and Cebu Rep. Gwendolyn Garcia made a motion to postpone the political exercise, which was set for May 14.

Voting 14-2, Garcia’s motion was carried by the committee.

Representatives Lawrence Fortun and Edgar Erice objected to the motion.

Voting 17-0, the committee voted to reschedule the polls from May 14 to the second Monday of October this year.

The voting was conducted barely a month after Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez said he saw no reason to further postpone the elections.

Oriental Mindoro Rep. Reynaldo Umali earlier filed a bill calling for another postponement of the forthcoming elections so that Congress could focus on amending the 1987 Constitution and complete it before the May 2019 midterm elections.

Umali filed the bill even after the Commission on Elections announced that they were 85-percent ready for the political exercise in May.

The barangay and SK elections have twice been postponed - from October 2016 to October 2017 and then to May 2018.

Had the Senate filed a counterpart bill and if it decides to postpone the exercise, this would be the third postponement of the village elections. SunStar Philippines