Resetting barangay, SK elections

EDITORIAL

Incumbent barangay officials must be grinning from ear to ear after the Senate approved on third and final reading Tuesday a bill postponing the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections from May 2020 to Dec. 5, 2022.

With 21 affirmative votes, no negative vote and no abstention, Senate Bill 1043 is approved, Senate President Vicente Sotto III said.

Sen. Imee Marcos, author of the measure, said barangay and SK elections would be held first Monday of December in 2025 and every three years thereafter. Newly elected officials will assume office on Jan. 1.

At the House of Representatives, the counterpart measure is ready for plenary discussion. The committee on suffrage and electoral reform Monday approved a consolidated bill resetting the polls to the second Monday of May 2023.

Around P5.7 billion is allocated in the budget for next year’s barangay and SK elections. The House is realigning the amount to other programs and activities, including palay procurement, which received an additional P3 billion.

“The money that could be saved from the deferment could better be used for infrastructure and social services, such as health and education,” deputy speaker Aurelio Gonzales Jr. Gonzales, one of the sponsors of the measure, said.

In his State of the Nation Address, President Duterte said the barangay and SK elections should be postponed to allow incumbent officials more time to implement their programs and projects.

There must be an ulterior motive to the postponement, pundits are saying. The next national and local elections will be on May 2022. At that time, incumbent barangay officials would still be holding office. They are the ones who could sway the people to vote for administration candidates.

The catch, they say: the administration would like to hold on to power through its candidates. As to the administration’s presidential candidate, they say, that is a foregone conclusion.