THE Senate on Tuesday afternoon passed on third and final reading a proposed measure that will postpone the barangay and Sangguninang Kabataan elections from December 5, 2022 to the second Monday of December next year.
With 17 affirmative votes, two negative votes, and no abstention, the Senate approved Senate Bill No. 1306 or An Act Postponing the December 2022 Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections. The bill was sponsored by Sen. Imee Marcos.
Senate minority leader Aquilino Pimentel III and deputy minority leader Risa Hontiveros voted against its passage.
Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri named Senators Joseph Victor Ejercito, Sherwin Gatchalian, Nancy Binay, Francis Escudero, and Hontiveros as members of the Senate bicameral conference committee contingent that will iron out the disagreeing provisions of the measure with the version approved by the House of Representatives.
The House of Representatives has passed a counterpart measure last September 20 with a vote of 264 in favor, six against, and three abstentions.
In explaining his negative vote, Pimentel said “there is compelling reason” why the barangay and SK elections should not be postponed since the law mandates that the next elections should be held on December 2022.
With the passage of the measure, Pimentel said sitting barangay and SK officials will now already be serving four and a half years instead of only three years.
He said the elections will also serve as a barometer to find out how barangay and SK officials handled the pandemic, among others.
Hontiveros said she will submit a written explanation to the Senate leadership explaining her negative vote.
Marcos, in her sponsorship speech, has said that deferring the barangay and SK elections “merely underlies the unfinished business of deeper issues plaguing both the barangay and Sangguninang Kabataan systems.”
“Thus, this proposed election postponement is a means to buy us time for a series of measures that the committee on electoral reforms and people’s participation is proposing to Congress,” Marcos said.
