Longer term sought for barangay execs

MANILA, Philippines — Saying it is time to end the “national bad habit” of postponing barangay elections, Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto yesterday said village officials should have a longer term.

Recto made the call as the  Senate is set to pass on third and final reading next week a bill postponing the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections from May next year to Dec. 5, 2022.

At the House of Representatives, members of the committee on suffrage and electoral reforms consolidated around 40 bills seeking to reschedule the barangay and SK polls from May 2020 to May 2023.

“We have postponed the barangay elections six times since 1988. The proposed scrapping of the one scheduled in May 2020 will be the seventh. If it pushes through, it will be the third under the Duterte administration and the first three-peat of its kind in history,”  Recto said.

He said records at the Senate and the House of Representatives show that bills seeking to postpone barangay elections are always premised on a promise that it will be the last.

“In 1988, 1989, 2002, 2005, 2016 and 2017... never again has become let me try again,” Recto said.

He said the common reasons cited for the postponements are peace and order, election fatigue and budget constraints.

Recto said barangay officials should have a term of at least five years to save on expenses.

If the term is extended to five years, there will be only three elections in 15 years or a savings of P12 billion, he said.