Since late last year, several barangay officials have been shot dead, with political rivalry suspected in nearly all the cases.
Apart from resorting to murder to eliminate rivals, some village officials or their patrons in the higher echelons of government appear to be resorting to underhanded tactics to manipulate the outcome of the upcoming barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections or BSKE.
In recent weeks, there have been complaints from mayors even in Metro Manila about non-residents being trucked in to register as BSKE voters.
Yesterday, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said that from Dec. 12, 2022 to Jan. 31 this year, it had uncovered over 400,000 double or multiple registrants.
Why would people use flying voters, and even resort to murder, to win positions in the barangay and youth councils? What’s at stake? And who would organize such mass fraudulent registration?
Under Republic Act 7160 or the Local Government Code, barangay officials are empowered to collect taxes that accrue exclusively to them on brick-and-mortar shops with annual gross sales of up to P50,000 in cities and P30,000 in municipalities. They can also collect fees or charges for the use of barangay-owned properties or service facilities such as palay, copra and tobacco dryers.
They collect fees for barangay clearance, from recreational areas that charge admission, for commercial breeding of fighting cocks as well as cockfight and cockpit operations, and for the display of billboards, sign boards, neon signs and outdoor advertisements.
This is apart from the opportunities for kickbacks from certain projects. Homeowners in an upscale barangay in Metro Manila, for example, contributed their own funds and raw materials for constructing a guard house. The barangay stopped them and took over the project, building it at double the cost.
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No less than the Super Ate ng Pangulo is pushing for a Senate probe into the multiple voter registration. She is, incidentally, no longer seen as her brother’s SAP in the mold of Rodrigo Duterte’s Bong Go. These days Bongbong Marcos’ SAP – the special assistant (or super alalay) of the President – is seen to be his cousin the Speaker, the head of what is supposed to be an independent and co-equal branch of government.
Among the first measures passed ASAP last year by that branch of government was the postponement, for the nth time, of the BSKE. Apparently, the promise of yet another term extension (among other things) inspired village officials to campaign vigorously at the grassroots for what turned out to be the winning team of 2022.
As of this week, the Comelec says it is 100 percent ready for the BSKE in October – that is if the vote will not be postponed again.
By the reckoning of Comelec Chairman George Garcia, the latest postponement, from the schedule last December, would mean an additional P4 billion to P5 billion on top of the original P8 billion outlay.
He made this projection as lawmakers led by the vociferous defender of sugar barons in the Senate claimed the postponement was meant to save us taxpayers that P8 billion allocated for holding the BSKE in 2022.
Pinoy 10-year-olds might be comprehension-challenged, but I’m sure the majority of Filipinos are no idiots and can recognize the intellectual dishonesty in that argument, and the misuse of public funds for personal and partisan patronage.
Why were lawmakers overwhelmingly eager (with Malacañang going along) to bloat the P8-billion 2022 appropriation for the BSKE?
At one point, Garcia’s postponement math was challenged by the current ruling class. He retreated and said the Comelec would simply carry out whatever the law stipulates.
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Unlike the general and midterm elections, whose schedules are dictated by the terms of office specified in the Constitution, Congress – with Malacañang’s approval – sets the date for the BSKE. Like many powers vested in public officials, unfortunately, this one has been abused shamelessly.
Proper representation in a democracy requires getting the people’s mandate at regular, predictable intervals. Elections can be postponed by force majeure – a cataclysmic earthquake, for example, or a super typhoon – but only for a few days or, at most, weeks.
This principle has been upended by the vile habit started during the Duterte administration of rewarding barangay officials for their help in elections (or courting their support as political leaders) with a term extension.
Opponents of such term extensions argue that the Constitution authorizes Congress merely to fix the term of barangay officials, but not to extend that term through a prolonged postponement of the elections.
Filipino voters readily perpetuate political dynasties, but frown on outright term extensions. This is indicated in the repeated resistance to every attempt since Fidel Ramos’ presidency to amend the Constitution – an initiative always suspected to be intended for the lifting of term limits.
Yet Congress has enabled the repeated extension of the terms of barangay and SK officials, the current crop of which was hit by scandals in the distribution of COVID ayuda and oppressive enforcement of lockdown rules at the height of the pandemic.
They must be among those who think democracy is working in the Philippines, according to a Social Weather Stations survey last December. I wonder what the respondents thought that survey question meant exactly.
There ought to be a law… penalizing the lawmakers who allow this travesty to happen.
Penalties in this country, unfortunately, are only for penny ante lawbreakers. The bigger the thievery and abuse of power, the greater the likelihood of getting away with it.
Those flying registrants could be prosecuted for election-related offenses. But those who organized and financed the multiple registration will get away.