A poll worker delivering ballot boxes in Quezon City in preparation for the May 9, 2022 elections. (File photo by NIÑO JESUS ORBETA / Philippine Daily Inquirer)
MANILA, Philippines — The Catholic Church’s social action arm and an election watchdog have opposed the postponement of the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections scheduled in December and called out the government for using lack of funds as an excuse.
According to Bishop Jose Colin Bagaforo, Caritas Philippines national director, pushing back the political exercise for the third time since 2016 “reflects how our national political leaders undermine the importance of barangay level politics in the exercise of our democratic rights.”
“It is not right for the government to suppress electoral processes, especially [since] the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections are seen as the most accessible and organic form of citizen’s engagement in public service and governance,” the Kidapawan prelate said in a statement.
He added that in 2020, these elections were moved to 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the same reason was being cited in the postponement bills.
‘Lame excuse’
Fr. Tony Labiao, Caritas Philippines executive secretary, stressed that the pandemic should not be used as an excuse to again delay the holding of the political exercise.
“Different government agencies still allocated funds for the ongoing COVID-19 response. And we know how even the Department of Health was not able to fully expend its budget last year. Thus, like in any other organization, our government needs to step up its game to ensure good planning and better execution, and not to use this as a lame excuse to postpone the December elections,” he said.
House Majority Leader Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez had said that a postponement would free up over P8 billion in funding which could be used for the government’s COVID-19 response.
A bill pending in the House has proposed that the elections be moved to 2024.
Danilo Arao, convener of poll watchdog Kontra Daya, also found the proposal to defer the elections unacceptable, saying these were supposed to be held every three years, starting in 2007.
“While the 2010 and 2013 polls were on schedule, the 2016 polls were postponed to 2018, the last barangay/SK elections ever held. To delay the polls further would defeat the purpose of the three-year term limit which is supposed to be consistent since 2007 but has been compromised with the 2016 postponement,” he said.
“The barangay/SK elections should push through on Dec. 5. If Congress needs the P8-billion budget for this activity, our legislators can ask the dictator’s son to settle [their] real estate tax obligation which is 25 times more than the budget for the … elections,” Arao added, referring to the P203-billion estate tax liabilities of President-elect Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s family.
According to Arao, another delay would also mean incumbent officials perpetuating themselves in power.
‘Clear circumvention’
“If memory serves, the 2018 polls were held with the elected ones fully aware that they will serve for a limited period of time toward ensuring regularity despite the postponement at the time. They are now serving for four years. This is a clear circumvention of the intent of the barangay/SK polls,” he said.
In December 2019, President Rodrigo Duterte signed Republic Act No. 11462 moving the elections from May 2020 to the first Monday of December 2022.
Earlier, he asked Congress in his State of the Nation Address for a postponement to rectify the shortened terms of barangay and SK officials who had been elected on May 14, 2018.
It was the third deferment under his administration. Congress had moved the elections twice, from Oct. 31, 2016, to Oct. 23, 2017, and then to May 14, 2018, enabling more than 42,000 barangay officials to overstay.
The postponement in 2016, after he won the presidency, gave Duterte a free hand in filling up vacancies in the government, as it nullified the 45-day ban on the appointment of officials during an election period.
But the president had also said then that he wanted to move the polls because he feared drug money could be used to fund the campaigns of some candidates.
In 2017, Congress passed the bill deferring the barangay and SK elections amid Duterte’s repeated assertions that he did not want these to proceed because candidates backed by drug traders would win.
Under RA 11462, the barangay elections after the one to be held in December this year would take place on the first Monday of December 2025 and every three years thereafter.
In a briefing last week, the Commission on Elections said that the polls would push through with preparations to begin next month.
—WITH A REPORT FROM INQUIRER RESEARCH
RELATED STORY
Duterte signs law deferring 2020 barangay, SK polls to Dec 2022