Unelected barangay chiefs

Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez said he is ready to push for the passage of a law that allows President Rody Duterte to appoint the country’s more than 42,000 barangay captains.

If this pushes through, there’d be no more elections for the chief executive of the barangay, the country’s basic political unit.

What a rare chance for those who are unelectable to be appointed to at least the position of a barangay captain.

But why would the president prefer to appoint barangay captains instead of electing them? An election hews to the so-called “vox populi” or the voice of the people, the will of the electorate.

The president once said majority of the barangay officials are involved in illegal drugs. And Alvarez said the president’s reason “is very valid.”

By doing away with the elections, no one involved in narco-politcs gets elected as barangay captain. But what if one involved in drugs gets appointed?

Former Senate President Aquilino Pimentel Jr. warned appointing barangay captains would leave the country with local officials beholden, not to the people, but the appointing authority.

Pimentel, Local Government Code author, said it would defeat law’s intent, which is to decentralize authority from the central government to local leaders.

Well, it seems anything could be done if only to solve the country’s illegal drugs problem.

Citizen Battle Against Corruption party-list Rep. Sherwin Tugna, House committee on suffrage chair, said, “The voice of the people should be heard in choosing their leaders at the barangay level. This is the essence of democracy.”

Retired Regional Trial Court Judge Meinrado Paredes said of the plan to appoint barangay officials instead of electing them: “The election and appointment issue, this is democracy vs. dictatorship.”

This could be an inexorable slippery slope toward dictatorship. Imagine how hard it is to climb up a greasy pole.

But why would the president prefer to appoint barangay captains instead of electing them?