House bill won’t extend, but fix barangay, SK terms

MANILA, Philippines — A measure recently passed on second reading by the House of Representatives was meant to set a fixed six-year term for barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) officials to make them more efficient and not to postpone the elections, a House leader clarified yesterday.

“We are not extending, we are not postponing the elections, we are fixing with definiteness the term of barangay and SK officials. That is the only intent of the substitute House Bill that passed on second reading last week,” Oriental Mindoro 1st district Rep. Arnan Panaligan said over Teleradyo Serbisyo yesterday, referring to House Bill 11287.

Panaligan is vice chairman of the House committee on local government.

Under HB 11287, the Punong Barangay and the Barangay Kagawad are entitled to two consecutive six-year terms while the SK chairman and SK kagawad would be allowed a fixed term of six years.

“We consolidated the 18 proposed bills in Congress into one substitute bill which was approved on second reading last week. We are expecting to have it approved on third and final reading before Congress goes on a recess on Feb. 5,” Panaligan said.

“We have enough time to approve it on third and final reading. We will have a recess from Feb. 5 to June 2 and we will return to our regular session after the elections. Then it will be tackled in the bicameral conference committee to fine tune the bill and reconcile differing versions of the House and the Senate,” he said.

“In the Senate, they are pushing for a four-year term,” he added.

Panaligan said Congress can still conduct bicameral conference committee meetings even during recess.

He said that under the Constitution, Congress has the power to determine the term of office of barangay and SK officials, and not to postpone the elections.

“As the Supreme Court stated in its ruling, extending or postponing the barangay and SK elections is not allowed. It is prohibited. You can only extend the election on highly merited reason,” the lawmaker said.

“Extension and postponement are prohibited, according to the Supreme Court, unless the reason of extension is justifiable. We are not extending, we are not postponing, we are only fixing the term of office of barangay and SK elections to give them more time to prepare and plan their projects and to implement them,” Panaligan said.

“Under the Constitution, as far as barangay officials are concerned, it (term) can be determined by law, three, four, five, six years term based on Congress legislations,” he added.

Panaligan said extending the terms of office of the barangay and SK officials to six years will give them greater “autonomy” as well as shield them from undue influence from local officials such as congressmen, mayors and governors.

Panaligan, who had served as mayor and as governor for 18 years, said that the present three-year term of office of barangay and SK officials is too short for local officials to finish their programs.

He said that more than half of the three years in office of barangay officials are devoted to attending mandatory trainings and related activities organized by the Department of the Interior and Local Government, which has jurisdiction over them.

“Because of the shortness of their term, three years, before their trainings are done, it is election time again. So, they have no finished project or some have not even started one yet,” Panaligan said.