Congress urged to immediately decide on fate of SK elections
MANILA, Philippines — Senate President Franklin Drilon pressed Congress on Friday to immediately decide whether or not to postpone the Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections scheduled for February 21, 2015.
Drilon made the call even after some leaders of the House of Representatives claimed that senators have already agreed to adopt its version of a bill postponing the SK polls to October 2016.
“Our schedule is a bit tight considering that we only have six session weeks before we adjourn in March 19. The scheduled SK election next month is just around the corner, so a decision has to be made immediately whether to allow the elections of new set of SK officers or postpone it further to October 2016 to give Congress more time to overhaul the current SK system,” he said in a statement.
By synchronizing the SK elections with the barangay elections, Drilon said, “There will be more time for the current system to be reviewed and reforms (to) be introduced, while saving public funds and precious time.”
While the House has already passed a bill postponing the SK polls to October 2016, the Senate has yet to approve its own version of the bill.
At 10:00 a.m. this Friday, the Senate committee on local government being headed by Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. will convene to tackle the proposal.
Marcos, in a statement Thursday, expressed openness to postpone the elections.
“I am open to a possible postponement of SK election as long as it will be under an SK reform law. Because if we hold the elections as scheduled, we will be holding it under the same old SK system that I and the other senators are fighting to reform. So all these discussions and moves to reform the SK will be useless,” he said.
Marcos said elections can wait but SK reform “is non-negotiable.”
“I did not compromise at all on the SK reform. For me, this is non-negotiable. That is why my position is precisely, we can talk of any date of SK election as long as it will be under a new SK Reform Law,” he further said.
Aside from the SK postponement, Drilon reiterated Congress’ commitment to pass the Bangsamoro Basic Law within the first quarter of the year.
“We will have to strictly follow our schedule, because this bill that will create and embed peace in Mindanao still has to go through a lot of process including the ratification by the areas covered by the law, and the ratification should take place before the election period,” he said.
The Senate leader said Congress will also work double time in ensuring the passage of “must-pass” measures before the end of the second regular session in June 2015.
Among these bills, he said, are the amendments to the Build-Operate-Transfer Law, the Fair Competition Act, Rationalization of Fiscal Incentives Act, the rationalization of the mining revenues, the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act, and the amendments to the Charter of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.
The creation of the Department of Information and Communication Technology, the Philippine Immigration Act, the creation of information and communications technology hub, definition of public utilities, and the Magna Carta of the Poor.
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