SK, Brgy. polls postponement OK’d

Both houses of Congress voted yesterday to approve on third and final reading bills postponing the upcoming October 2016 Barangay and Sangguni-

ang Kabataan (SK) elections to give way to much-needed reforms that would improve the institutions’ ability to serve its constituents.

Voting 20-2, Senate Bill No. 1112, primarily sponsored and authored by Senate Committee on Local Government Chairman, Senator Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara, and coauthored by Senators Leila de Lima, Alan Peter Cayetano, Loren Legarda, Joel Villanueva, Cynthia Villar and Juan Miguel “Migz” Zubiri, was the first bill to be approved for the 17th Congress.

In the House of Representatives, 218 voted for the approval and four against House Bill No. 3504 which provides for the deferment of this year’s barangay and SK elections and the holding of the polls to the fourth Monday of October, 2017.

Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez underscored the urgency of passing the measure as he noted that the Commission on Elections is mandated to start preparing for the barangay polls within this month.

HB 3504 provides that incumbent barangay officials will remain in their post in holdover capacity unless sooner removed or suspended for cause.

Senate Minority Leader Ralph G. Recto and Sen. Risa Hontiveros were the only ones who voted “no” to barangay and SK polls postponement.

Recto said the effect of the postponement is that barangay officials who coddle or are in cahoots with drug lords are gifted with another year in office.

“Those who are barangay captains and drug captains at the same time will have a one year free pass, not courtesy of the people but of their fellow politicians,” Recto said in his privilege speech.

“Postponement will rob barangay residents of the chance to boot out barangay officials who moonlight as drug traders or whose feeble leadership allowed the proliferation of narcotics in their areas,” he added.

Hontiveros, for her part, said she was against the postponement of the SK poll because it would send “the wrong signal that the government is not sincere in including the youth in governing the country.”

The measure aims to move the twin elections, originally set on October 31 this year, to the fourth Monday of October, or Oct. 23, 2017.

In the meantime, the terms of incumbent and SK officials will be extended “for a year unless they are removed or suspended from office.”

De Lima, who chairs the Senate electoral reforms committee, said this measure, once enacted into law, will give more time for local officials to implement their projects and programs in their respective localities.

“We believe that barangay officials should remain apolitical for the sake of their constituents. Village officials should not be partisan or be used by politicians so they can effectively serve the Filipino,” De Lima said.

Reforms, election fatigue

Angara, for his part defended the passage of the bill saying the first and foremost reason for pushing through with the postponement is to allow more time for the full implementation of the SK Reform Act or Republic Act No. 10742.

The law, Angara said, was a product of the hard work of other colleagues, Senators Paolo “Bam” Aquino IV, Jose Victor “JV” Ejercito, and former Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos.

He said the government was not ready to implement many of the provisions and programs under the SK Reform Act, which was signed into law in January of this year “to improve the services of the SK and make it more meaningful.”

“For instance, RA 10742 calls for the creation of a training fund worth 150 million to be used for the mandatory training of SK officials. But these trainings cannot take place this year given the 2016 GAA does not provide any such training funds,” Angara said.

Angara also cited “election fatigue,” among voters since the nation has just concluded the May 2016 national election four months ago.

“Consider how, according to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) only 3.095 million – or less than 50 percent – new voters were registered in time for the SK polls out of the target six million this year,” he said.