MANILA – The proposed postponement of barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections is one step closer from being approved at the Senate.
Senators approved on second reading Senate Bill No. 1043 seeking to postpone the barangay and SK elections from May 2020 to Dec. 5, 2022.
If ever the measure gets approved by the Congress and signed into law by President Rodrigo Duterte, the winning candidates will be proclaimed on Jan. 1, 2023 at 12 noon. Subsequent elections will happen every three years.
Senator Ralph Recto, however, expressed concern, saying the next round of barangay and SK poll still faces possibility of getting postponed again when the new President is elected by May 2022.
“The future president will come at Congress and ask again for the postponement of elections. Our initial fear will probably be even worse,” Recto said.
Senator Imee Marcos, the sponsor of the measure, has assured Recto that the Commission on Elections (Comelec) had already said that it wouldn’t be a problem for them.
“Upon prodding during the Comelec budget, as well as the consideration of the extension that is extensive, we have come up with a work program working backwards and it brought us to December 2022,” Marcos said.
“Six and half months or so is a short period and we’ll be pressed for time but they claimed they can do it without undue problems,” she added.
The same measure, meanwhile, has been approved by the House of Representatives’ committee on suffrage and electoral reforms on Tuesday, committee chairperson Juliet Ferrer said.
The consensus at the House aligns with the Senate, which has approved at the committee level, Senate Bill No. 1043 seeking to postpone the 2020 BSKE to May 2023 instead./PN
