Lawmakers: Enough time to postpone barangay polls

MANILA, Philippines - Lawmaker-allies of President Duterte in the House of Representatives reassured the Commission on Elections (Comelec) yesterday there is still ample time for Congress to pass a law postponing the Oct. 23 barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections anew. 

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.

“We can pass a law in the House (postponing the elections) once the leadership resumes session on July 24,” Citizens Battle Against Corruption party-list Rep. Sherwin Tugna, chairman of the House committee on suffrage and electoral reforms, said. 

He issued the statement following calls by Comelec chairman Andres Bautista for Congress to decide on the fate of the elections as the poll body is about to start printing official ballots by July 20.

House Deputy Speaker Raneo Abu and Reps. Robert Ace Barbers of Surigao del Norte – chairman of the House committee on dangerous drugs – and LRay Villafuerte of Camarines Sur supported Tugna’s position. 

“President Duterte only wants to resolve the drug menace and appointing officers-in-charge to the barangay posts is worth considering following the involvement of some of them in illegal drugs,” Abu said. 

“Remember our barangay officials are the people’s first line of defense in the grassroots level and they should protect society from the drug menace,” Abu, a congressman from Batangas, added. 

Barbers, who authored House Bill 5359 postponing the polls, expressed hope Malacañang will certify the bill as urgent to make this possible. 

Villafuerte, for his part, said the proposed postponement of the election at the grassroots level would give “a lot of breathing space” to Comelec officials and employees, teachers and all others who were involved in the May 2016 polls. 

Comelec spokesman James Jimenez said the poll body is open to the proposal of delaying the printing of ballots to be used in the barangay and SK polls but this must have a strong basis.

According to Jimenez, such a proposal “is not an entirely novel idea.”