Cebu officials welcome deferment of barangay polls

IT was a development in the country’s political landscape that people awaited, and when it finally came, Cebu election officials and village chiefs expressed joy, if not relief, that they now had more time to do the things that needed to be done.

The postponement of the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections was viewed as a “very welcome development” by Association of Barangay Councils (ABC) Cebu City president Phillip Zafra; while a Commission on Election (Comelec) official in the province also saw this as an opportunity to further prepare for next year’s polls.

In a talk with Cebu Daily News, Zafra said that this paved the way for village officials to focus on their programs especially now that they are actively working with police authorities in the drive against criminality and drug addiction.

“Especially now that we are in the middle of effecting genuine change and reform under the administration of President Duterte. . . . It will give us the opportunity to do more and work more for the development of our respective barangays,” Zafra said.

Comelec Cebu provincial election supervisor Lionel Marco Castillano, for his part, said that with the deferment of the polls, they can now resume with the registration of voters as soon as the Comelec head office in Manila gives them the green light.

“Wala pa (there’s no definite schedule yet) as of now since Comelec could not finalize yet. But Comelec chairman Andres Bautista said we could do it by October,” Castillano said.

The House of Representatives, on Tuesday, approved on third and final reading the bill postponing the elections, just hours after it was also approved on third reading in the Senate.

The approval of the bill by both Houses of Congress paved  the way for the President to sign the bill into law after Congress ratifies the bill.

The postponement is in line with administration’s move to sweep out barangay chairpersons alleged to be coddlers of drug suspects.

Interior Secretary Mike Sueno had said he supports some lawmakers’ proposal to allow the President to appoint competent barangay officers-in-charge (OICs). But the amended draft of the bill retained the hold-over capacity of incumbent barangay and SK officials until the next elections next year.

“All incumbent officials shall remain in office,” the amended bill read.

The postponement would also allow the President to have a free hand in filling up the vacancies in the bureaucracy and avoid the elections ban of 45 days before a regular election and 30 days before a special election as stated in the Omnibus Election Code.

According to House Bill 3504, the village and SK polls this year would be deferred to the fourth Monday of October next year or October 23, 2017.