Duterte not recommending barangay polls postponement

DAVAO CITY—President Duterte on Thursday said he would not recommend another postponement of village and youth council elections on May 14, but warned that there would be more killings if candidates involved in illegal drugs were elected.

 “I say let’s have an election,” Mr. Duterte said in a speech at a shooting competition for policemen and soldiers here.

 But he said the drug situation was “very alive and vicious” and involved village officials.

 “So, if the barangay captains backed by drug money win, it would be another war, another killing,” he added.

 The President’s statements seemed to coincide with the lack of action at the House of Representatives on four bills seeking to postpone the elections for a third time to either October this year or May 2019.

 Rep. Sherwin Tugna, chair of the House suffrage and electoral reforms committee, said the bills had not been put on the House’s agenda.

 Tugna added, though, that any move to postpone the May 14 elections should have the support of the Senate, which was a remote possibility if the opinion of Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III were to prevail.

 Pimentel had said he was not inclined to support another postponement of the elections, which were originally scheduled on Oct. 31, 2016.

 The barangay elections, originally scheduled for Oct. 31, 2016, was first moved to Oct. 23, 2017, and then to May 14, 2018.

 As a result, the three-year terms of barangay officials who were elected in 2013 were effectively extended as they were retained in a holdover capacity.—REPORTS FROM ALLAN NAWAL AND VINCE NONATO