Habit-forming extension

Lately there has been a flood of visitors to the office of Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri.

As narrated by Senator Migz himself, his visitors are barangay officials, who are lobbying for a common cause: yet another extension of their term, through a postponement of the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections set on Dec. 5.

The village officials, Zubiri disclosed, are lamenting about their expenses for their campaign in May 2018 – an election that was finally held after two postponements, which effectively extended the terms of barangay officials at the time by a year and a half.

Oh, and here we are being made to believe that the congressional push for yet another postponement of the barangay and SK polls is meant to save P8.4 billion – public funds that, proponents claim, could instead be used for the pandemic response.

Now the push for postponement is looking more like lawmakers’ pandering to the barangay officials. You wonder why lawmakers would want to pander, or perhaps show gratitude, or feel beholden in any way to village officials. And you wonder what the quid pro quo might be, especially during elections, for this kind of pandering.

Unless Congress truly wants to give taxpayers a hefty relief and decides to simply abolish the useless SK and drastically trim the number of barangay officials, the elections will have to push through at some point in the foreseeable future.

Meaning, the election expenditure is simply being deferred. Strictly speaking, that is not the definition of savings. In fact the deferment could even end up costing taxpayers more, since inflation, which is projected by economic analysts to remain high in the coming months, is sure to kick up the election expenditures.

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The Commission on Elections itself is cool to a postponement. Comelec officials have said it would throw a monkey wrench into preparations for the midterm elections in 2025.

Also, the P8.4 billion has already been appropriated under the national budget for this year, according to the Comelec. Isn’t it illegal to realign the funds, especially for a completely different purpose?

The barangay and SK polls were supposed to coincide with the general elections last May, but this was moved by the Duterte administration to Dec. 5 this year, ostensibly to save taxpayers P5.7 billion. You wonder how the barangay and SK officials expressed their gratitude for that half-year extension.

Savings? Good thing the terms of office of the president, vice president, lawmakers and local government executives are specified in the Constitution. Otherwise, postponing the elections for those posts will reach epidemic proportions, in the guise of saving people’s money.

If lawmakers really want to save public funds, they should pass legislation to drastically cut the number of party-list representatives, if not abolish the system altogether. The system has become a mockery of the intent to provide marginalized sectors a voice in Congress.

At the same time, lawmakers can save precious public funds if they stop the endless gerrymandering to accommodate more members of their dynasties and their political supporters.

The government is the country’s biggest employer, and yet look at the quality of governance and basic services. Those of us taxpayers who aren’t on the public payroll should sue for estafa.

As the sergeant-at-arms of the House of Representatives told us on One News’ “The Chiefs” before the SONA, the seating arrangement at the Batasan plenary hall had to be remodeled to accommodate the greater number of HOR members – now with about 50 percent more than the original when Congress opened after the 1986 people power revolt (with only 14 party-list representatives at the time).

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The postponement is being opposed by three poll watchdogs, the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting, National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections and Lente or the Legal Network for Truthful Elections.

Among other things, they pointed out that by the time the SK polls push through, the incumbents will already be past the age limit set by law for youth council members: 24.

The youth councils have become entry points into politics, and training ground for the youngest members of political families. Incumbent elective officials, whose terms are fixed under the Constitution, will concoct all sorts of excuses to give their princelings in the SK another term extension.

Among the most nauseating reasons given by some proponents of the postponement is the need to “heal the wounds” of the May elections.

If you don’t give others a chance to replace the current batch of barangay and SK members, wounds will become deeper.

Zubiri, who told us on “The Chiefs” last week on One News about the barangay officials lobbying at the Senate for a term extension, also lamented that there was rampant vote buying in this year’s elections.

The new Senate chief did not provide details, but he said he would push for certain electoral reforms based on the vote buying that came to his knowledge.

As one of the handful of officials in the line of succession in this country, isn’t the Senate president duty-bound to disclose what he knows about this evil way of undermining a free vote? Perhaps Zubiri is faced with the problem that bedevils those who genuinely want to thwart vote buying: finding solid evidence.

The Comelec is currently pursuing formal complaints about vote buying that poll officials say are backed by evidence – presumably witness testimonies with corroborating digital recordings or a verifiable money trail.

What Zubiri can do is forge ahead with his push for electoral reforms. And he can rally his colleagues to stop turning poll postponement into an ugly habit.