Senate postpones barangay, SK polls for 1 year

The Senate has agreed to postpone the 2005 barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections — but only for a year instead of three years, as proposed by the House of Representatives.

Voting 19 to 1, the Senate approved on third and final reading Tuesday evening a compromise proposal of Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. to reset the two elections from the first Monday of October this year to the last Monday of October 2006.

The House approved House Bill 3742 postponing the barangay and SK elections to the second Monday of May 2008.

The larger chamber’s decision to defer the two elections stemmed from Malacañang’s statement that there was no money available for the electoral exercise.

Pimentel said he was not convinced by the Palace’s explanation, especially since Malacañang allocated P 6.4 billion for Charter change as part of the Arroyo administration’s Medium Term Philippine Development Plan.

"What we in the Senate approved was a middle ground between the administration’s proposal to postpone the barangay and SK elections by three years, which is too long," Pimentel said. "My original position (is) to proceed with the elections as scheduled this year."

He is opposed to deferring the elections, saying this would deprive the people of the right to choose their own barangay and youth council officials when their three-year terms expire.

Delaying the elections will also impair the process of making these officials accountable to village residents for their official performance, he added.

Postponement of the polls would mean the automatic extension of incumbent barangay and SK officials’ terms of office.

"This is not good because this would unduly reward even barangay and SK officials who performed badly or who were involved in corrupt practices," Pimentel said.

He also prevailed upon administration Sen. Richard Gordon, who was keen on setting the barangay elections on the second Monday of May 2007.

Gordon said the synchronization of the elections would minimize election expenses and give the government time to review, study and implement the rationalization of barangays.

In a related development, Pimentel said there is no basis for Malacañang’s claim that no funds are available for the elections of officials in 41,975 barangays and youth councils in the country.

The estimated expense of P2.8 billion could be sourced from the barangays’ and SK shares of the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA), Pimentel said.

For this year, the barangays are entitled to a total of P30.3-billion worth of IRA funds. Of this amount, the SK share is 10 percent or P3.03 billion.

Section 50 of the Omnibus Election Code authorizes local government units to contribute to the holding of barangay elections.

Pimentel criticized the Arroyo administration for being willing to spend a great deal on Charter change yet hesitating to allocate funds for the barangay and SK elections.

"This only means that, if an election suits their political agenda, they have no problem producing the necessary funds. But if an election does not dovetail with their interests, they can always claim there is no money for it." he said.