OFFICERS of the Kabataan party-list in Cebu slammed the country’s legislators for approving the postponement of the Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections from October this year to May 2018.
Calling the move a “betrayal to the citizens,” Kabataan Partylist – Cebu coordinator Ed Bacaltos expressed alarm that this was a ploy to maintain the Duterte administration’s tight grip on power.
“This will be marked as leverage for the administration to appoint only interim officers, where this is a violation in our democracy to chose freely,” Bacaltos said.
He lamented that the postponement hinders the youth from their goals to serve the people and develop as future leaders of society.
He urged the public to be mindful of government officials who are only after their own self-interests as they may eventually disregard the citizens’ power to elect their own chosen candidates.
Kabataan Party-list Representative Sarah Elago earlier expressed dismay over the postponement of the SK elections and said that the people deserved to know the whole truth behind the move. Voting 213–10, the House of Representatives last September 11, approved on final reading a bill postponing the barangay and SK elections from October 2017 to May 2018.
After being certified as urgent by President Rodrigo Duterte, the Senate also approved the election’s postponement on third and final reading last Wednesday.
Voting 17–1 and zero abstention, the Senate approved Senate Bill No. 1584 less than three hours after it approved the measure on second reading.
The bill was approved without the provision that would allow Duterte to appoint barangay officials, which was proposed as part of the government’s effort to weed out villages of barangay officials involved in illegal drugs.
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