Appointing 366K village execs not a gargantuan task, solon says

An ally of President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday said appointing over 336,000 barangay officials in the country should not be a gargantuan task considering the millions of Filipinos victimized by the drug menace.

During the “Ugnayan sa Batasan” forum at the House of Representatives, Surigao Del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers made this statement in support of his bill allowing Duterte to appoint barangay officers-in-charge to head all the country’s 42,036 barangays.

Barbers’ bill was filed seeking to allow the President to replace the country’s barangay officials in a bid to weed out the influence of drugs in the most basic unit of government where barangay captains are accused of being coddlers of drug lords and syndicates.

Barbers said a screening committee in every local government unit may be created to vet out the officers-in-charge who would replace the corrupt barangay officials.

This task of appointing as many as 336,000 barangay captains and councilors should not be gargantuan task considering the millions of Filipinos victimized by drugs, Barbers said.

“I think it is realistic in the sense that there shall be a screening committee in every local government unit to make it expeditious and clear,” Barbers said.

“Yung pag-appoint ng 300,000 na tao, hindi naman ‘yan importante kung ikukumpara sa kung anong maaapektuhan ng droga. We have five million drug dependents in the country, with 40 percent of barangays being involved in drugs. Let’s not wait for the five million to become 10 million,” Barbers said

(The appointment of 300,000 persons should not be too important if comparing it to the five million drug dependents in the country, with 40 percent of barangays being involved in the drugs. Let’s not wait for the five million to become 10 million.)

Barbers said he filed the bill only now after the Duterte administration claimed 40 percent of the country’s barangays are coddlers of drug lords and syndicates.

He said he filed his bill as a “temporary solution” rather than not making any action at all to weed out the influence of drugs in the barangays.

“What’s more important, the 10 million Filipinos in drugs, or the 330,000 barangay officials? Pwedeng gawan ng sistema yan para mapabilis (A system can be put in place to expedite the process),” Barbers said.

“We want a temporary solution to this drug menace, rather than just sitting down and wait for all these things to happen against us and be victims of criminals,” Barbers added.

Earlier, Barbers said the 1987 Constitution allows the President to appoint officers-in-charge in the barangays, citing Article 10, Section 3 of the 1987 Constitution which allows the President to appoint barangay officials.

The said provision states that Congress shall enact a local government code which shall “provide for the qualifications, election, appointment and removal, term, salaries, powers and functions and duties of local officials, and all other matters relating to the organization and operation of the local units.”

Barber’s bill seeks to postpone the upcoming October elections to May 2020 and three years thereafter to allow the President to replace all barangay officials with his appointees.

READ: House ally files bill allowing Duterte to appoint barangay execs

Duterte’s Interior Secretary Ismael Sueno said the government mulled this move to weed out the influence of drugs in the barangays supposedly because drug lords purportedly bankrolled barangay officials’ candidacies.

READ: Duterte wants village execs appointed

Barbers had also cited Section 8 of the same article in the Constitution, which states that “the term of office of elective local officials, except barangay officials, which shall be determined by law, shall be three years and no such official shall serve for more than three consecutive terms.”

This means the President may remove all barangay officials and appoint OICs through a law passed by Congress, Barbers said.

Barbers enumerated the constitutional basis for his bill as election law expert Romulo Macalintal countered that Duterte’s plan is unconstitutional, primarily because declaring vacant all existing elective barangay positions would violate the constitutional right to security of tenure of the current officials.

READ: Appointing barangay execs unconstitutional — election expert

Barber’s House Bill 5359 seeks to postpone the 2017 barangay and Sanggunian Kabataan (SK) elections to May 2020, and subsequent elections to May 2023 and three years thereafter.

The bill seeks to amend Republic Act 10923, the latest law passed by Congress in 2016 that postponed the October 2016 barangay elections to the fourth Monday of October 2017.

Barbers’ bill seeks to further postpone the village polls elections to the fourth Monday of May 2020, and every three years thereafter.

The bill also states that all incumbent officials should be deemed terminated upon the passage of the proposed legislation, thus allowing President Duterte to fill up all barangay posts with officers-in-charge.

The bill also mandates the Commission on Elections to promulgate the implementing rules and regulations within 90 days after effectivity of the bill to law.

If there are provisions in the bill deemed unconstitutional, according to the bill, the unaffected portions of the bill should remain in full force and effect.

Barbers, who chairs the House dangerous drugs committee, said in his explanatory note of the bill, “President Rodrigo Duterte said that he wants the October 2017 barangay elections postponed because he does not want those financed by drug lords to win. He further said that if the barangay elections would proceed as planned, the winners might be financed by drug money.”

“It is therefore paramount to postpone the barangay and Sanggunian Kabataan elections to support the President’s call,” he added.

He said the drug problem is prevalent at the most basic unit of local governance.

“The barangay system is merely giving more benefit to the political patrons of these barangay officials, added to the fact that there is purported influence of drug money in the political exercise,” Barbers said.

“In support of the President’s call to eliminate drugs and corruption among our barangay leaders, the immediate approval of this measure is highly recommended,” Barbers added.

Opposition lawmakers in the House of Representatives however warned of the “dictatorial tendencies” in Duterte’s move, especially because historically, the barangays during the Marcos dictatorship served as a “machinery” to cement the strongman’s rule. JE/rga

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