Senate to recommend postponement of barangay, SK polls

MANILA, Philippines - The Senate committee on electoral reforms and people’s participation is set to recommend the postponement of the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections to October next year and for the holdover of incumbent officials until then.

Sen. Richard Gordon, committee vice chairman, presided over its first and probably only public hearing on the issue yesterday since the panel’s chair, Sen. Leila de Lima, is still in detention.

Gordon said he is ready to come out with the committee report recommending postponement of the elections from Oct. 23 this year to October next year, but would wait for the House of Representatives to approve its own version of the bill.

The House committee on suffrage and electoral reforms has recommended the postponement of the elections to May 2018 and keep the incumbent officials in holdover capacity.

It is now scheduled for debates in plenary.

“We will have to postpone and do it in October. I don’t believe that Comelec (Commission on Elections) will find it difficult to do it (in October),” Gordon said.

He said he would also recommend the holdover of the incumbent barangay officials and remove them only for cause.

Comelec Chairman Andres Bautista told the committee that they are waiting for a signal from the Senate on which direction it would take regarding the proposed postponement of the elections and they would want to know this soon.

The Comelec has started printing ballots for the October elections, but if Congress is able to pass the law soon, Bautista said they would be able to cut preparation costs.