Speaker Pantaleon “Bebot” Alvarez on Thursday said he favors postponing the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections this year to 2017 to allow President Rodrigo Duterte to fill up vacancies in the government under his administration.
In a press briefing, Alvarez said the SK polls have to be deferred to allow the executive department to appoint officials in government.
According to the Omnibus Election Code, an appointing authority is prohibited from appointing new employees, creating new positions, promoting employees, and giving salary increases at least 45 days before a regular election and 30 days before a special election.
“Tingin ko, considering marami pang kinakailangan na appointments na gagawin ang executive branch, hindi pa sila natatapos sa screening process nila, tingin naman natin na practical na ipagpaliban muna natin eleksyon,” Alvarez said.
(In my opinion, considering that the executive branch still needs to make many appointments, they’re still not done with their screening process, we see that it’s practical to postpone the election.)
“Alam naman natin na kapag eleksyon, hindi pwede mag-appoint at magtanggal ng mga nasa posisyon (We know that when it’s election period, people can’t be appointed or removed from posts),” he added.
Earlier, the majority coalition caucus in the House of Representatives backed supporting the deferment of the village polls and SK elections to hold them simultaneous with a possible Constitutional Convention (Con-con) to amend the Constitution for a shift to a federal form of government.
READ: Village polls may be deferred to 2017 for Con-con, says solon
The majority coalition is thinking of both scenarios of a Constitutional Convention, which is the method of amending the Charter through the election of delegates, and a Constituent Assembly (Con-ass), where Congress would convene to propose amendments to the Charter. President Duterte has said he preferred Con-ass. JE/rga
READ: It’s Con-ass, not Con-con