Vice President Leni Robredo said Sunday if the government has allowed the reopening of tourist spots amid the COVID-19 pandemic, there could be no reason to postpone the May 9, 2022 elections.
“If Manila Bay was opened and Boracay and the other tourism sites are about to open, there is no reason to postpone [the elections],” she said.
House Deputy Majority Leader and Pampanga Rep. Mikey Arroyo had asked the Commission on Elections if the 2022 elections could be postponed due to COVID-19.
But Robredo said despite the COVID-19 crisis, the United States, New Zealand and South Korea were pushing through with their elections.
An amendment to the 1987 Constitution is the only way to postpone the May 9, 2022 elections, Cagayan de Oro City Rep. Rufus Rodriguez said.
He told Dobol B sa News TV that the postponement of the 2022 elections would be unconstitutional.
“There is a provision in our Constitution that there must be an election for the national officials, meaning President, vice president, senators and congressmen, and the local officials, provinces, cities and municipalities, excluding the barangay, on every second Monday of May," Rodriguez said.
"That date is provided for under the Constitution. There is no way unless by Constitutional amendment to postpone it. So there is no way that we can suspend it.”
Senator Juan Edgardo Angara, for his part, is pushing for the holding of early voting for close to 10 million senior citizens and people with disability to ensure greater participation in the electoral process and to reduce the risks to their health of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Angara aired his concerns about how seniors and the disabled faced disenfranchisement because they had to line up with millions of other voters at the precincts.
He believes it would be better to set a special date for the seniors and the disabled to vote.