Commission on Elections Chairman George Garcia. Senate PRIB file photo / Bibo Nueva España
MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Thursday said the proposal to postpone the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections in Negros Oriental to quell rising political tensions in the province must be “seriously and carefully studied.”
Comelec said this after Sen. Francis Tolentino on Wednesday suggested the postponement of the polls in Negros Oriental during the Senate public order and dangerous drugs panel’s inquiry into the state of political killings in the country, including Negros Oriental where Gov. Roel Degamo was brazenly assassinated on March 4.
READ: Postponement of barangay, SK polls in Negros Oriental pushed to quell political tension
“It should be seriously and carefully studied by the commission. Although admittedly, we have the power to postpone the election in an area, however, there are stringent requirements of the law. Aside therefrom, such a postponement is only up to 30 days,” Comelec chairman George Garcia said in a Viber message.
Under the Omnibus Election Code, “any serious such as violence, terrorism, loss or destruction of election paraphernalia or records, force majeure, and other analogous causes of such a nature that the holding of a free, orderly and honest election should become impossible in any political subdivision” shall warrant the postponement of elections in the area.
But it should be deferred “to a date which should be reasonably close to the election not held, suspended or which resulted in a failure to elect but not later than 30 days after the cessation of the cause for such postponement or suspension of the election or failure to elect.”
Comelec spokesperson John Rex Laudiangco said they believe Tolentino’s recommendation was instead a call for Congress to amend Republic Act 11935, or the law suspending the December 2022 Barangay and SK polls, “insofar as the elections on the subject province being excepted from the nationwide synchronized Barangay and SK elections.”
A total of 43 elected government officials in Negros Oriental were victims of gun attacks from 2016 to March 2023, according to the Philippine National Police, and among those, 33 were killed.
READ: IN NUMBERS: Attacks on elected officials in Negros Oriental since 2016