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CEBU, Philippines - Even if the synchronized barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections are still scheduled for next year, some lawmakers are now pushing for its deferment in order to reduce electoral expenses and allow barangay officials ample time to finish their respective projects.
Cebu City North District Rep. Rachel “Cutie” del Mar said she will be re-filing a bill for the postponement of the barangay elections from 2013 to 2014.
“I will also refilling a bill for the postponement of the barangay elections from 2013 to 2014 so that we don’t want have two elections, the local and congressional elections, in one year,” Del Mar said.
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Another congressman from Mindanao, Rufus Rodriguez, wants the barangay elections reset to the last Monday of October 2015 instead of October 2013.
In seeking the postponement of the poll under House Bill 5654, Rodriguez said that elections in the Philippines are always a costly exercise, both for the candidate and the government.
In the May 2010 national elections, the Commission on Elections entered into a contract for the automation of the counting of the votes in the amount of P7.2 billion, just for the Precinct Count Optical Scan machines alone.
For the 2013 elections, excluding the SK and barangay polls, the Comelec is projecting a budget of P15 billion to P20 billion.
The bill, co-authored by Rep. Maximo Rodriguez Jr., of the party-list Abante Mindanao, also effectively extends the term of the barangay officials, a move that will ensure stability in the barangay level so that the programs initiated by the current leaders will come to fruition.
Rodriguez said the three-year term of barangay officials is too short a time for the developing unity and stability in barangay leadership and affairs.
Cebu City South District Rep. Tomas Osmeña said he will support any move by congressmen to defer the 2013 elections, but he also said he doubts that such a move will succeed because of what had happened in the October 2010 elections.
“Congressman will vote for it because they don’t want to spend double,” Osmeña said.
Osmeña said that while it will be supported by other congessmen, he sees that it may not gain the support of Malacañang.
“PNoy is unpredictable,” Osmeña said, recalling when the House of Representatives approved a bill for the postponement of the barangay election from 2010 to 2012 but President Benigno Aquino III wanted the barangay elections to push through saying he does not see any compelling reason to defer the barangay elections. — /BRP (FREEMAN)
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