Senate to wait for House decision on barangay polls

MANILA, Philippines -  The Senate will wait for the decision of the House of Representatives on Malacañang’s proposal to again postpone the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections this October before deciding on the measure.

“I told the Speaker (Pantaleon Alvarez) we want the House to act first on this,” Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III said. 

Pimentel apparently thinks the House will decide on the bill soon as he said the Senate will come up with its own decision by August. 

Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian is cool to the idea of postponing anew the barangay polls, saying the government did not do what it had promised – going after barangay officials involved in drugs – when it pushed for the deferment of the youth and village elections last year. 

“I want to know what happened to that (running after barangay officials). Did we file cases against erring kapitans? How did we remove them? How many are really involved? We should have an executive briefing from the drug agencies to know exactly who are involved,” Gatchalian said. 

Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon also opposed the proposal, saying the people should be given the opportunity to choose their local leaders through open and honest elections. 

Officials of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) are worried that the poll body might not have enough time to prepare for the polls if Congress decides too late to have it push through.

The poll body might also be wasting public funds if it prepares election paraphernalia only for Congress to postpone it for another year, they said. 

The Comelec, however, said that it is not taking sides when it comes to the discussion on the fate of the Oct. 23 barangay and SK polls.

According to Comelec spokesman James Jimenez, the poll body is “not urging postponement of the 2017 barangay and SK elections” but it is “seeking the earliest possible resolution to the question of whether the elections will be allowed, by Congress, to proceed as scheduled or not.”

Comelec Chairman Andres Bautista has urged lawmakers to decide if the barangay and SK polls will be postponed or not because they are set to start printing the ballots on July 20.

President Duterte earlier said he wanted to appoint officers-in-charge in the barangays who would help him in his war against drugs, but this was opposed by some members of Congress.

            – With Sheila Crisostomo