House eyes abolition of SK, barangay council

MANILA, Philippines – The House of Representatives is eyeing the abolition of the Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) and the election of barangay councilors, Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez said on Saturday.

“We are considering the abolition of SK because I think it is no longer right,” Alvarez told reporters in Tunga, Leyte where he was guest speaker of the Leyte Electric Cooperative III.

He noted that elected SK officials would be forced to work and discouraged from going to school to perform their mandate.

“They are getting paid without doing anything. We might as well get rid of it because all sectors are represented in Congress anyway. In fact, we have a party-list representative for the youth in Congress,” Alvarez said.

SK is the country’s youth council at the grassroots level.

The Duterte administration also wants to do away with the election of barangay councilors.

“The truth is they don’t really work. The ones who are hardworking are the barangay captains,” Alvarez said.

“We have to fix this, we have to fix the country and we have to change this system,” he added.

The Speaker proposed that the barangay councilors be replaced with purok leaders.

“Barangay captains can choose who their purok leaders should be, along with barangay health workers for purposes of institutionalizing a better system,” Alvarez said.

The Senate and House of Representatives plan to postpone the barangay and SK elections set on Oct. 31. – With Paolo Romero, Mayen Jaymalin