Mindanao solon calls for deferment of 2022 barangay, SK polls

MANILA, Philippines — A Davao Oriental representative has sought to again defer the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections set for December 2022 to 2024, allowing incumbent village and youth council officials to remain in office for 17 more months.

Citing “global effects” of the pandemic that will linger for a few years, Davao Oriental Rep. Joel Mayo Almario filed House Bill No. 10425 seeking to postpone the December 2022 barangay and SK elections to May 2024.

“The global effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are expected to stay for a few more years. It is still uncertain as to exactly when it can be contained as medical and scientific studies in search [of] the lasting treatments are still ongoing,” Almario said in the bill’s explanatory note.

Almario filed the measure on Oct. 28, or more than a year before the barangay and SK elections set for Dec. 5, 2022.

The said polls will come seven months after the May 9 national and local elections.

This means that a new set of elected officials from the President down to barangay and youth officials will be installed in 2022 as the country enters its third year of the pandemic.

Almario’s bill seeks to postpone the barangay and SK elections by at least one year and five months to May 6, 2024.

The last barangay and SK elections were held in May 2018, due to a law signed by President Duterte, which postponed the October 2017 polls.