Village polls postponement doubtful

Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon INQUIRER PHOTO / GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE

Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon is doubtful that Congress would be able to decide by next month the postponement of the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections.

The Commission on Elections (Comelec), for its part, is keeping tabs on the matter so it can decide when to slow down its preparations.

Drilon said the 17th Congress would open its second regular session on July 24 and only after that could the Senate local government committee hear the bill postponing the barangay and SK elections.

Also, the same committee could only report out its findings on the bill filed by Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III for plenary debate by the second week of August, Drilon said.

“Congress should start preparing in July. Is there still time? I doubt it,” he said in a text message. At the same time, he said he was not in favor of postponing the elections.

Comelec chair Andres Bautista had urged lawmakers to act immediately on the postponement by July to avoid wasting funds in the preparations.

Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez on Tuesday said the matter of slowing down their preparations would depend on the certainty that the elections in October 2017 would be put off.

“Any slowdown of preparations must be based on sufficiently high levels of probability of postponement, such that it is no longer considered a question of ‘if’ but ‘when,’ he said.

Sen. Francis Escudero said the Comelec should postpone the printing of ballots considering that Congress could only resume sessions in late July. He suggested that the election officials do “back channeling to find out the direction of the administration.’’

Sen. Juan Edgardo Angara, chair of the local government committee, on Tuesday said that senators may need to discuss Bautista’s call “either in a committee or caucus.”

“But given it’s a recess, it would be difficult to have that discussion because senators are not together (at this time),” Angara said.

Sotto filed last May 17 Senate Bill No. 1469 which seeks to reset the October 2017 elections to the fourth Monday of October 2018.