MANILA, Philippines — Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III said yesterday the proposed postponement of the May 14 barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections is as good as dead as far as the Senate is concerned.
In the first place, Pimentel said the resolution approved by the House of Representatives has not been transmitted to the Senate.
Assuming that they receive the copy tomorrow, Pimentel said this would leave them with only two days to act on it since they are adjourning for the Holy Week on Wednesday.
But what is even more critical than the tight schedule to approve the measure is the lack of support from the senators, based on Pimentel’s own survey on the issue.
“Zero is in favor of the postponement, based on my informal survey,” Pimentel said.
Sen. Francis Escudero echoed the statement of Pimentel, saying there is no time left to take up the postponement.
Escudero added that he is not inclined to a postponement for the third time, especially when the options for what to do with incumbent officials are not acceptable.
He said he does not agree with the executive branch appointing barangay officials.
The other option of keeping incumbents in holdover capacity until the next election in October was also not acceptable to Escudero.
He noted how President Duterte criticized barangay leaders for being involved in the illegal drug trade, which was why the moves to replace them came up in the first place.
“Let the people decide and let us not take this away from them,” Escudero said.