Appointing barangay officials must be legal

Perhaps someone ought to remind the officials of the European Union (EU) that the Philippines is no longer under Spain, and therefore we are not under the EU, since the Treaty of Paris was signed in 1898 when all remaining colonies under Spain, including Cuba, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines were ceded to the United States of America (the Philippines was sold for $20 million) and later after the end of World War II, the United States gave the Philippines its full independence on July 4, 1946.

So when I read a report from The Philippine STAR yesterday, which said that the EU summoned a Philippine envoy to explain an expletive-laden tirade by Pres. Rodrigo "Digong" Duterte who batted for the re-imposition of the death penalty, I said to myself that this was terribly wrong! As the report read: "The EU's external action service, the equivalent of a foreign office, said it hauled Charge d'Affaires Alan Deniega in to its Brussels headquarters to provide an explanation for the recent, unacceptable comments of President Duterte."

This is the problem of the world today, that world bodies like the EU interfere with our internal affairs and even propose sanctions if we do not follow EU rules. I can understand if this came from the United Nations of which the Philippines is a full member, but the EU is another animal. While we recognize its existence, we are not under it in any way or form.

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Former Senate president Aquilino "Nene" Pimentel Jr. who authored the Local Government Code (LGC) stated that the proposal of Pres. Duterte to postpone again the barangay elections would violate the purpose of the law creating the barangays and deny the people their right to vote for their political leaders. Pimentel believes that if barangay officials are appointed, "It will undermine the purpose of the LGC, which is meant to reduce the influence of the central government and empower the electorate on the barangay level."

While I do not dispute the arguments of Nene Pimentel, the fact remains that there is a list of 40 percent of our barangay leaders who are tagged as narco politicians, a list that Pres. Duterte has not yet made public. While I submit that we are still a working democracy, we live in difficult or extraordinary times. In all the past years or even decades, we have never heard of a figure of 3 million Filipinos who are hooked on illegal drugs. If we allow the barangay elections to push through, you can bet that the narco politicians would win their seats hands down because of the huge funds at their disposal coming from illegal drugs!

At this point, may I suggest to Pres. Duterte that for the next few months, his war on illegal drugs should now focus on those personalities in the barangays who are in that list? Anyway that list needs to be verified or validated by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency. If we do this, we can at least eliminate a great number of those suspected barangay officials who are really involved in illegal drugs, then we can call for barangay elections after things normalize.

Meanwhile, the son of Nene Pimentel Jr., Senate President Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel III, also reminded Pres. Duterte that his plan to replace elected barangay officials with appointees is not supported by law. Koko pointed out saying "That needs a law. That needs a legal basis." We know too well that Pres. Duterte is not the kind to circumvent the law or violate our laws as he mentioned this many times in his past speeches. So in the end, Congress under House Speaker Pantaleon "Bebot" Alvarez and Koko Pimentel have to sit down and come up with a plan to make all this legal.

President Duterte pointed out that he could accept a compromise and even suggested that the Catholic Church and other citizens can nominate three citizens in each barangay. While I find this a good compromise, however it still must be covered by some kind of law in order to make it legal. Secondly, these appointments should only be for two years and those who are appointed into positions in the barangay should be prohibited from running in the next barangay elections.