Comelec wants brgy, SK polls put off

CEBU, Philippines - The Commission on Elections is eyeing to propose to Congress the postponement of the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections slated for October this year.

In a report from The STAR, Comelec Chairman Andres Bautista noted that the country has just concluded the general elections, thus, there is a need to reset the October polls to a later date.

He said this is meant to avoid "election fatigue" with too many elections conducted in a year.

"We will suggest that maybe it would be better if we postpone that... We may be discussing this with the new chairman of the House committee on electoral reforms and the Senate counterpart," he said.

He explained that holding the elections this October would entail billions of expenses so it would be better not to have many elections in a year.

Cebu Board Member Celestino Martinez III, the president of the Association of Barangay Councils, expressed support to the proposal, saying holding too many elections in a year is quite costly.

"We need a period of healing… It can be done to a later date, maybe a year," he said in a phone interview with The FREEMAN.

Martinez said he would be seeking re-election as barangay captain in the October polls.

Republic Act 9164 provides that the synchronized barangay and SK elections shall be held on the last Monday of October and every three years thereafter.

If a law on the postponement is passed, this would be the third time that the youth council elections will be postponed.

The SK elections were originally slated October 2013 but were postponed to pave way for reforms. In March last year, President Benigno Aquino III signed into law a bill rescheduling the SK elections to the last Monday of October 2016.

The Comelec had reported that it saved more than a billion from the postponement of the SK elections.

In October last year, a law was enacted reforming the current SK system. Among the changes introduced was the raising of the age ceiling for would-be members of the youth council from the present 15 to 17 years old to 18 to 21 to make them legally capable of entering contracts and be held liable for their actions. — (FREEMAN)