PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte has signed into law a bill postponing the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections up until the second Monday of May next year.
Despite initial preparations already made by the Commission on Elections, Duterte signed into law Republic Act No. 10952 on Monday, Oct. 2, to move the elections to May next year.
Under the law, President Duterte will not be allowed to appoint barangay officials as he originally wanted.
Incumbents will be allowed to remain in office until their successors are elected next year.
Subsequent synchronized barangay and SK polls will be held on the second Monday of May 2020 and every three years after that.
The law sets aside P6 billion as a continuing appropriation to be used for the elections.
Duterte said he wanted the elections deferred because drug money could be funding the local politicians’ campaigns, claiming that 40 percent of barangay captains nationwide were involved in illegal drugs.
Of the 42,000 barangays in the country, around 20,000 are still considered tainted by illegal drugs, according to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency.
This is the second time that barangay elections were postponed since the President took office.
The Commission on Elections had already made preparations for the barangay and SK polls, including the setting up of a gun ban from Oct. 1 to 30. The poll body has also finished printing ballots worth P59.5 million.
Lawmakers on Wednesday welcomed President Duterte’s signing into law the postponement of the elections.
Reps. Raneo Abu of Batangas, Robert Ace Barbers of Surigao del Norte and LRay Villafuerte of Camarines Sur said the postponement of the village polls was in line with the President’s desire to curb illegal drugs.
Abu said the postponement of the barangay elections was in support of Duterte’s anti-drug campaign.
Barbers, head of the House committee on dangerous drugs, said there was a need to postpone the 2017 village elections to rid barangays of officials linked to illegal drugs.
Villafuerte called on barangay chiefs nationwide to conduct their respective forums against illegal drugs during the scheduled nationwide barangay assemblies on Oct. 8 in support of President Duterte’s goal to maintain law and order and succeed in the war against the drug scourge.
Villafuerte, a staunch supporter of President Duterte’s war against illegal drugs, said such forums or assemblies will help in seeking the cooperation of the people at the grassroots level in keeping their communities free from narcotics and other illegal substances.
Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto, on the other hand, said he hoped the Palace would keep its word that this would be the last postponement of the barangay elections.
“I am counting on the palabra de honor of Malacañang that this will be the last cancellation,” he said.
He said officials in this land—from the President down to the barangay captain—have the same employment status: they’re contractual employees elected to fixed terms. Having expiry dates on elective posts is one of democracy’s greatest virtues.
“And nothing inspires good performance more than the threat of being terminated from work. This fear of feeling the end of the boot is what keeps us casuals always on our toes,” he said.
He said the effect, however, of the postponement, is that barangay officials who have lost the trust of their constituents, like those who coddle or are in cahoots with drug lords, are gifted with another year in office.
He said people should not be robbed of their right to replace their leaders or renew their trust in them.
He also said this should be the last deferral because there is a fiscal cost in cancelling.
Every time we reset, we pay a postponement fee, in the hundreds of millions, for activities which must be conducted again,” he said.