House OKs postponement of SK polls for 2016

MANILA, Philippines—Taking a break from an all-day deliberations on the budget, the House of Representatives approved on second reading Wednesday night a bill to postpone the Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) election for three years, deferring it to the last Monday of October 2016.

The House voted viva voce to pass the bill on second reading.

The postponement of the SK polls is intended to allow authorities to consider various proposals to abolish the youth council as an institution.

The bill also states that no sitting SK officials would remain in office after the expiration of their terms in October 2013.

Before the vote, suffrage committee chair Capiz Rep. Fredenil Castro and the bill’s author Caloocan Rep. Edgar Erice called on their colleagues to approve the measure so that young boys and girls would not need dirty their hands in politics.

Erice said postponing the SK polls would prevent 16- to 17-year-olds from entering “the school of corruption.”

Castro said the SK system has not been working. “It is known to all of us that the Sangguniang Kabataan has ceased to fulfill the noble purpose of engaging the youth in the active participation of community building for which it was originally envisioned,” he said.—Leila Salaverria