Philippine Baranggay and SK Polls to Push Through

We can safely say that the upcoming baranggay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections is 90% sure of pushing through this coming October 29 as the House of Representatives and the Senate was unable to come up or approve a bill postponing the local elections. It seems that the 5-year old officials will finally be replaced after all that is if the barangay chairmen who is currently in the position will not be running again otherwise the government will just spend money and just come up with the same set of officials once again.

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 Iloilo congressman said.

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.”

Meanwhile, the Comelec will impose a ban against the construction and maintenance of provincial, city, municipal and barangay-funded roads and bridges from Oct. 19 to 29 in line with the upcoming barangay and SK polls.

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.

Some members of the House tried but failed to convince the Senate to work on the postponement of the polls.