House panel approves bill postponing barangay, SK polls to 2023

The House Committee on Suffrage and Electoral Reforms unanimously approved a bill that would postpone the May 2020 barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections to the second Monday of May 2023.

Among the authors of the measure were Deputy Speaker Paolo Duterte of Davao City, Way Kurat Zamora of Compostela Valley, Inno Dy of Isabela, House Majority Leader Ferdinand Romualdez of Leyte, and Claudine Diana Bautista of Dumper party-list.

“There is a need to rectify the truncated terms of incumbent barangay and SK officials to enable them to have more time to finish their programs and projects for the interest and welfare of their barangays,” read House Bill 3937, one of the bills seeking the barangay and SK polls postponement of which Duterte was one of the authors

At least 40 bills proposing the postponement of the  May 2020 barangay and SK polls had been filed in the House of Representatives.

The Duterte administration had postponed the barangay and SK polls twice, in 2016 and 2018, to supposedly rid the barangays of officials linked to the illegal drug trade.

In June, poll watchdog National Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) warned that postponing the barangay elections in 2020 only allowed incumbent barangay officials to escape accountability.

"Most basic services and infrastructure programs in the barangay are already in place. You don't need to reinvent the wheel in running a barangay," Namfrel Secretary General Eric Alvia had argued. — DVM, GMA News