Another poll after a bruising one is too much

SPEAKER Pantaleon “Bebot” Alvarez hit the nail on the head when he said there was no need for barangay councilors (kagawad) and the Sangguniang Kabataan (youth council).

The kagawad and SK leaders are useless because they just make it cumbersome to govern a  barrio (village) or barangay.

Too many cooks spoil the broth, as the saying goes.

There should be just one leader in a village—the barangay captain.

And since there are no longer any kagawad under Alvarez’s proposal, the barangay heads should no longer be called chairpersons which means head of the council.

Aside from being elegant, captain means a single leader who is in complete control.

The barangay captains can appoint their assistants—secretary, treasurer and tanod or watchmen.

Make the barangay captains solely accountable for their decisions.

In case the barangay captain dies or is no longer capable of running the village, the town or city mayor can appoint an officer in charge until the next election.

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Speaker Alvarez’s proposal  is practical.

After a bruising and costly national election in May, why hold another one in October?

Two nationwide elections in one year, five months apart, are too much for the electorate to handle.

Let the voters rest.

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If you think barangay and SK elections are free from vote-buying and threats, you must be naive.

Candidates for barangay posts spend hundreds of thousands of pesos to convince residents to vote for them.

Parents of young people running for SK posts spend practically the same amount of money for their children to win.

We have been teaching our young—both the candidates and voters—to be corrupt early on in life by holding SK elections.

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The hard work the Army put in in capturing the leader and members of the Maute bandit group went to waste when they escaped from the Lanao del Sur provincial jail on Saturday.

If I were the Army commander whose soldiers sacrificed their lives fighting and capturing the Maute bandit group, I would take drastic action against the jail warden and his men.

Reports say authorities were investigating why the jail guards did not put up any resistance against the raiders as well as why security was not tightened after the high-risk detainees were brought in.

Come on, they know why the detainees got away.

The prisoners did not escape on their own, they were allowed to escape.

The warden and guards as well as the Maute bandits are all Maranaws or Moros from Lanao.

Moros, especially Maranaws, are a very closely-knit ethnic or tribal group.

The government should have learned from its past mistakes: Moros have very strong tribal affiliations and tend to band together against a common enemy, especially if the enemy happens to be non-Muslims.

Since most government soldiers who fought the Maute bandit group are non-Muslims, the warden and guards sided with their fellow Muslims or Maranaws.