Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez wants the Sanggunian Kabataan (SK), the youth council in the barangay (village) level, and the barangay councilors to be abolished because he deems these posts as useless.
Alvarez said that this is one of the reasons why he favors the postponement of the SK and the village polls which are set at the end of October this year.
The Speaker said that SK officials are being paid while doing nothing.
“Kasi yung SK, pagka pumili ka ng SK, kapag pinilit mo ‘yan na magtrabaho bilang SK, hindi ‘yan papasok sa eskuwelahan. At kung pilitin mo ‘yan na pumasok sa eskuwelahan, ‘di na ‘yan magtatrabaho bilang SK. So sumusuweldo ‘yan na walang ginagawa,” Alvarez said in an interview in Leyte on Saturday.
(The SK, when you choose an SK and when you make them work as SK, they won’t attend school. And when you make them go to school, they won’t work as SK. So they’re being paid without doing anything.)
He also said that since the youth are already represented in Congress, there is no need for SK in villages.
“Mabuti pa tanggalin na lang ‘yan, tutal represented naman lahat ng sectors. O, meron ngang party-list na youth sector, so well-represented na ‘yan,” the Davao del Norte representative said.
(It’s better to remove them, since all sectors are represented. The youth sector has a party-list, so they’re already well-represented.)
As for the village councilors, Alvarez said that he also wants them to be abolished because they are useless.
“Dahil sa totoo lang, hindi naman nagtatrabaho ito eh. Ang nagta-trabaho ay ‘yung barangay captains,” he said.
(Because truthfully, they aren’t working. The barangay captains are the ones who are working.)
Instead, he wants to institutionalize the election of purok leaders. A purok is composed of 20 to 50 households.
“So bakit hindi natin i-institutionalize ‘yung existence ng purok leaders? Barangay health workers for instance, pudpod na yung tsinelas nung mga iyan, hindi makabili ng tsinelas dahil honorarium lang ang tinatanggap sa barangay. Let us put things in the proper order,” Alvarez said.
(So why not institutionalize the existence of purok leaders? Barangay health workers, for instance, their slippers are worn out but they can’t buy new ones because they only receive honorarium from the barangay. Let us put things in the proper order.)
Only the village chief, councilors, treasurer and secretary receive a monthly salary from the government.
Alvarez earlier said that he wanted to postpone the SK and village polls this year to 2017 to give President Rodrigo Duterte a free hand in filling up vacancies in his government so that he may not be impeded by the election ban.
READ: Alvarez backs postponing barangay, SK polls to avoid election ban
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. JE/rga