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Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Bishop wary of barangay appointees

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A CATHOLIC bishop warned Wednesday that appointing barangay officials nationwide would lead to an authoritarian rule, and that the barangay captains’ loyalty will remain with the appointing authority and not with their constituents.

Novaliches Bishop Emeritus Teodoro Bacani said allowing the President to appoint thousands of barangay leaders all over the country could signal the start of authoritarian rule.

He made his statement even as Senator Sherwin Gatchalian urged the filing of charges against the barangay captains involved in illegal drugs as he branded as “alarming” President Rodrigo Duterte’s remarks   that 40 percent of all barangay captains across the country are involved in drugs.

He said it was important to remove the 40 percent in the system.

“I believe that if the 40 percent is indeed involved in illegal drugs, he [political candidate] can use what he got from illegal drugs in his campaign activities,” Gatchalian said.

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Senator Francis Pangilinan opposed Duterte’s plan to postpone the barangay elections slated this October and appoint the village executives, saying it should be the voters who should weed out those involved in illegal drugs.

He told a forum in Manila that barangay postponing the elections would defeat the purpose of democracy.

“It is inconsistent with our representative, republican form of government … these are representatives of the people, voted with a mandate,” Pangilinan said.

In a radio interview, Bacani feared that the current administration was slowly turning the country into a dictatorial form of government, where it could dictate rules down to the smallest administrative division.

Bacani, a former member of the 1986 Constitutional Commission, said the barangay, the smallest administrative division in the country, was rooted in the country’s “elementary democracy” where citizens could practice their right and freedom to vote for their chosen leaders.

Novaliches Bishop Emeritus Teodoro Bacani. AFP

“Under the Constitution, the power to choose barangay leaders rests on the people and not on the President,” he said.

“He [Duterte] cannot appoint a barangay leader and that is against the law. It is stated under the law that the people have the right to choose their leaders and not appointed by the president,” Bacani said.  

The Philippines has 42,036 barangays, according to data from the Department of the Interior and Local Government.

Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers has filed a bill calling for the postponement of the 2017 Barangay and SK elections until the fourth Monday of May 2020. 

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