‘Barangay polls just as important’

Voters may tend to take the coming barangay and youth elections lightly as they may deem them to be insignificant compared to national and local elections.

“(The fact is) the barangay elections are very important,” said former Ambassador Henrietta de Villa, chair of the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV), in a radio interview here in Cotabato City on Friday.

The PPCRV had begun preparations for a massive voter education campaign for the barangay and youth elections in October throughout the country, but particularly in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

De Villa said the barangays were the smallest government unit but they comprised the largest political front in the country.

“We are now preparing modules as part of the PPCRV education and information campaign,” she said.

But why in the ARMM?

De Villa said it was a fact that the ARMM provinces of Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi were notorious for election-related violence and fraud.

Meanwhile, De Villa said she believed there was a need to revisit the law on the Sangguniang Kabataan.

“The SK has become the breeding ground for political dynasties in many parts of the country,” she said. Edwin Fernandez, Inquirer Mindanao