Brillantes: Village poll postponement not unconstitutional

Comelec Chair Sixto Brillantes Jr. FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines – Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. on Tuesday said that the proposed postponement of the barangay (village) elections is not unconstitutional because its timetable is not set forth in the Constitution.

“It is a law that fixes the period of barangay (village) elections, that is very clear. So the law can be amended, how can it be unconstitutional?” Brillantes told reporters in an ambush interview.

“It’s not like the national and local elections, which the constitution fixes on the first Monday of May. We cannot change that through a law,” he said.

Election lawyer Romulo Macalintal previously issued a statement saying that the Comelec’s plan to postpone the barangay elections in October 2013 and reschedule the polls for 2014 was unconstitutional.

Brillantes had said that he would endorse a bill in Congress that would postpone the barangay elections because it was too close to the just concluded May 2013 national and local elections.

President Benigno Aquino III issued a statement saying that he was not in favor of a postponement.

“It’s really up to the legislature and the President because all acts will have to be decided by the President. If the President does not like it, then if Congress passes a postponement law, he can always veto the postponement law,” Brillantes said.

“I’m just saying that it might be better to postpone it … but if it will not be postponed then we will go and conduct it because it’s what we are supposed to do. That’s the law,” he said.

Brillantes said that he want the barangay elections postponed because he wants to focus on wrapping up all issues related to the 2013 elections and to prepare for the 2016 presidential elections.

“We have so many things to attend to, more important than the barangay [elections]. Protest [cases] will be coming in and we will have to conduct studies and arrange preparations for the 2016 elections,” Brillantes said.

“It will entail another [round of] expenses and preparations,” he said.