Philippine Baranggay and SK Polls to Push Through
On the Sangguniang Kabataan going on with the elections is also a welcome move despite the fact that the SK needs to be reformed badly because it was unable to be a vital force in providing for the much neded youth development programs in the country. If we ask a regular youth about the SK you will be surprised that most of them does not even know what SK is.
House Majority Leader Arthur Defensor told reporters they don’t expect the polls to be cancelled or postponed, even if Malacañang has already certified a new measure as urgent, citing the obvious time constraints.
“I have given up hope already. I was asked yesterday (Thursday) if it is still possible for Congress to pass the bill on the postponement of barangay and SK elections. I said it’s not impossible, but highly improbable,” the
Reps. Mujiv Hataman of Anak Mindanao and Joel Villanueva of the Citizens Battle Against Corruption lauded the decision of the Senate to proceed with the political exercise, after Senate President Manuel Villar declared the deferment bill as “dead on arrival.”
Villar said the Senate has technically abandoned Sen. Richard Gordon’s bill to postpone the barangay/SK elections when it suspended the session last Wednesday night.
Besides, Villar said majority of the senators, including Senate minority leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr., has strongly opposed the third move to postpone the polls. “We have agreed on that in a caucus and also in the last session days. The majority has decided that it should push through after two postponements,” Villar said.
Neophyte Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri tried but failed to defend Senate Bill 1660 on the postponement of the barangay/SK polls last Wednesday night due to a technicality raised by Pimentel.