VOTING 14-2, the House of Representatives’ Committee on Suffrage and Electoral Reforms on Monday approved the bill postponing the May 2018 barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections in an attempt to give way to the proposed shift to federalism being advocated by President Rodrigo Duterte.
The committee, chaired by CIBAC party-list Rep. Sherwin Tugna, approved the substitute bill to House Bills 7072, 7128, 7167 and 7217, that call for the conduct of barangay and SK polls on Oct. 8, 2018 instead.
A total of 17 lawmakers voted in favor of the resetting of the elections to the set date upon the motion of Deputy Speaker and Batangas Rep. Raneo Abu.
Tugna said the postponement was linked to Congress’ effort to work on Charter Change.
“The main reason there was a move to postpone [the elections] is [that] come October 2018, we can do the polls along with the plebiscite,” Tugna said on the sidelines of the committee meeting.
He said the postponement of the May 2018 village and SK elections will be a “cost-saving” move.
President Rodrigo Duterte’s allies in Congress want to hold a plebiscite for the proposed new federal charter simultaneously with the May 2018 barangay and SK elections. But they find it more feasible to have it conducted in October of the same year.
The barangay and SK elections have been postponed since 2013. This will be the third time that the local elections will be postponed if the House committee on suffrage and electoral reforms’ decision is approved by the chamber in plenary session and later carried by the Senate.
Earlier, Congress enacted Republic Act 10853 resetting the October 2017 barangay and SK elections to May 2018.
The law provides that “incumbent barangay officials shall remain in office” until their successors shall have been duly elected. It also states that subsequent synchronized barangay and SK elections shall be held on the second Monday of May 2020 and every three years thereafter.
The postponement of the barangay and SK elections last year came after Duterte claimed local officials would use drug money to influence the elections.
Reps. Robert Ace Barbers of Surigao del Norte and Johnny Pimentel of Surigao del Sur backed the proposed postponement of May 2018 village and SK polls.
Barbers, one of the principal authors of the bill, said postponing the elections was “not actually going against the principles of democracy.”
Pimentel said the postponement would give the Commission on Elections more time to prepare for the village elections to ensure they are credible.
But Senator Sherwin Gatchalian rejected any postponement of the barangay elections.
Postponing it until October would not achieve anything to address the President’s concern about drugs because the Department of Interior and Local Government has already been given two year to file cases against barangay officials involved in illegal drugs.
“Extending it for another four to five months will not do anything,” he said.
He also said candidates for the barangay and SK elections have long prepared for the election, as has the Comelec.
Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III, on the other hand, said there was no commitment from the Senate that they will support the House motion postponing the barangay and SK elections.