Filing of candidacy for barangay SK polls to begin on April 14
ASPIRANTS in the May 14 village and youth council elections can start filing their respective certificates of candidacy (COCs) on April 14, Friday.
Local Government Assistant Secretary Jonathan Malaya on Wednesday, March 11, guaranteed that the local polls will no longer be pushed back to a later date, since the Senate has already discounted the possibility of once again delaying the twin elections.
“Until now, it’s saddening that there are still barangay officials who keep on asking, ‘Will barangay elections push through? Will it push through?’” Malaya told a press conference.
“Again, we would like to state for the record that the Senate has already shut the door to any further postponement. And since we are a bicameral legislature, without the Senate concurring with the proposal of the House of Representatives for the postponement, the door is closed to any further postponement,” he added.
On March 12, the House suffrage and electoral reforms committee voted in favor of the postponement of the village and youth council elections from May 14 to October 8.
The proposal, however, had failed to hurdle the Senate, as there was no counterpart measure filed by any of the senators.
The planned deferment of local polls can only push through, if a president signs into law a consolidated and reconciled bill submitted by the Senate and the House of Representatives.
It could be recalled that President Rodrigo Duterte postponed twice the conduct of village and youth council elections for fears that incumbent village officials who allegedly have links with drug syndicates might get re-elected.
The twin elections were initially scheduled on October 31, 2016 but was moved to Otober 23, 2017, as provided by Duterte’s Republic Act (RA) 10923.
The 2017 local elections, however, were re-scheduled to May 14, 2018 after Duterte signed RA 10952.
Since there was no chance to further delay the appointments of new set of village and youth council officials, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) has reminded aspiring local candidates that the filing of candidacies is scheduled from April 14 to April 20.
Under the poll body’s Resolution 10247, which adopted Resolution 10196, local bets can file their COCs before the Office of the City or Municipal Election Officer with jurisdiction over the village where the aspirant seeks to be elected.
In cities or municipalities where there are two or more election officers, the COC can be filed before the Office of the Election Officer of the District with jurisdiction over the aspirant’s village.
Malaya said the Local Government department already submitted to the Comelec a list of incumbent village and youth council officials who already served three consecutive terms in office in a bid to prevent them from running anew.
There are 8,927 third-termer incumbent village executives and 294,251 third-termer youth council officials in the country, according to the data submitted by at least 17 regional offices of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG).
“The reason why we submitted this list is we would like this to be a guide by our election officers, for them to determine if the person could run. If they are in that list, they could no longer run because they are already in their third term,” Malaya said.
Amid the forthcoming twin polls, there have also been proposals to require aspiring candidates to submit resume and agree to undergo drug test to ensure that they are fit to run for the respective posts they are vying for.
Joining Malaya at the press conference, Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez said such proposals are welcome, but are subject to thorough scrutiny.
“Unfortunately, there are some measures that have to be sorted out first. Even if you will agree that these things need to be done, we need to settle it so we are sure that we will not trip up on legal technicalities,” Jimenez said.
“But certainly, these initiatives are very welcome,” he added.
To allay Duterte’s apprehension that village officials who are connected with drug personalities may win in the May 14 local polls, Malaya said the DILG would hasten the filing of cases aginst those who are included in the drugs watch lists, as well as those who have failed to organize and executive the plans of the Barangay Anti-Drug Abuse Council.
“The plan is to create a task force of the department who will look at all of these barangay officials who fall under these two categories so that we can start the filing of cases against them,” he said. “We will expedite this.” SunStar Philippines