President Rodrigo Duterte delivers his State of the Nation Address at Congress on July 22. | Inquirer photo
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Should incumbent barangay and SK officials have their terms extended until October 2022?
President Rodrigo Duterte has called on Congress to closely study the postponement of the next Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (BSKE) to October 2022 instead of the original schedule on May 2020.
President Duterte, in his fourth State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Monday, June 22, said moving the elections to October 2022 will fix the “truncated” terms of the incumbent barangay officials.
“Congress has to postpone the May 2020 elections of the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan to October 2022 to rectify the truncated terms, paiba-iba na eh, the truncated terms of sitting barangay [officials],” the president said.
Read more: Duterte postpones barangay elections
The last BSKE was held almost two years late from the original schedule set for October 2016. It was postponed by Congress twice, in October 2017 and finally in May 2018. This means that former barangay officials served for five years since their election in 2013.
Republic Act 10952, which had set the last polls last May 2018, also provided the schedule of the next BSKE to be on the second Monday of May in 2020. Thus, incumbent barangay officials are now only serving a two-year term.
Provincial Board Member Celestino Martinez III, Association of Barangay Councils (ABC) in Cebu province president, echoed the President’s call for the extension of the terms of the barangay officials as he said that the two-year term was not sufficient to implement the projects of the incumbent officials.
“The President is someone, who is very familiar with how things, are at the barangay level since he served as a local chief executive for quite sometime. At present, a 2-year term is definitely too short and is not enough time for the barangay officials to provide any significant programs and projects. The move to extend is reasonable,” Martinez said in a message reply to CDN Digital.
Despite the President’s pronouncement, the Commission on Elections in Cebu province said they would continue with their preparations for the May 2020 BSKE.
Lawyer Ferdinand Gujilde, the Cebu provincial election officer, said that unless a law would be passed providing for the postponement of the elections, the Comelec would have to pursue the activities that were already set by their head office.
“The Comelec continues to prepare for May 2020 SK- Barangay elections unless Congress resets it by amendatory law in response to the President’s request,” Gujilde said.
Isabela 6th District Rep. Faustino “Inno” Dy V has already filed last July 1, House Bill No. 47 which seeks to reset the next BSKE to May 2023 to give the incumbent barangay officials a full five-year term. The succeeding polls, as proposed in the bill, will take place every five years./dbs