Cibac Rep. Sherwin Tugna (Photo from the Cibac Facebook account)
The bill seeking to postpone anew the October 23, 2017 barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections and moving it to May 2018 has hurdled the second reading following an approval during the session at the House of Representatives.
Cibac partylist Rep. Sherwin Tugna, who chairs the House suffrage and electoral reforms committee, said House Bill 6308 was approved on second reading during plenary session on Wednesday night.
In a text message to Inquirer, Tugna said the bill may be passed on third and final reading on Monday.
The bill will then be tackled in the bicameral conference to be consolidated with the Senate version, Tugna added.
In the bill, incumbent barangay officials are also allowed to remain in a holdover position.
READ: Bill postponing barangay polls hurdles House panel
“Its approval on second reading nears Congress in our goal not to burden our frontliner on the campaign against illegal drugs (barangay officials) on the ground level,” Tugna said
Congress last year approved a similar bill postponing the 2016 barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections to October 23, 2017, with the officials retaining a holdover position.
The previous SK and barangay elections were held in October 2013.
READ: House approves on final reading postponement of barangay polls
The lawmakers supporting the postponement echoed President Rodrigo Duterte’s call to defer the elections so that the villages would be weeded out of barangay officials who are suspected of being coddlers of drug lords.
The House all-party caucus agreed to postpone it anew to May 2018 to synchronize the barangay elections with the plebiscite for Charter change and the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law, two key pieces of legislation of the current administration. JPV