Gordon offers compromise formula on barangay election
Senator Richard Gordon, chairman of the committee on constitutional amendments and revision of laws, yesterday said he will attempt to persuade his legislative colleagues to strike a middle ground on the proposal of the House of Representatives to postpone the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections from Oct. 29 this year to the second Monday of October 2009.
Gordon presented his compromise formula to shorten the deferment of the twin elections by only one year to enable the Commission on Elections to automate in preparation for the 2010 national and local elections.
His proposal deviates from the supposedly unanimous stand taken by the senators in a recent caucus opposing any delay in the village and youth council polls.
“The Automated Electoral System Act of 2007 says the elections should be automated. And I’ll see to it that this is implemented for the barangay and SK elections even on a pilot basis,” Gordon told a public hearing.
The senator from Olongapo City broached his suggestion as barangay chairmen and councilmen came in droves to the Senate to express their support for the poll deferment.
The village officials, numbering over a thousand, were herded by Jose Marty Lim, president of the League of Barangays.
But representatives of the Department of the Interior and Local Government and Commission on Elections said if they will have their way, the polls should be held as scheduled because the activities have gone into high gear and hundreds of millions of pesos have already been spent for them.
Richard Nalupta, chairman of the National Youth Commission, said they favor the deferment to give Congress time to enact a law that would reform the SK.
Nalupta said the reforms include the adjustment in the age bracket for the youth from 15 to 17 to 15 to 21 years of age. He said the proposed law also contains an anti-dynasty provision which will disqualify close relatives of incumbent governors and mayors from running for SK positions.
Gordon said the provision of the AES law should be enforced in the barangay and SK elections wherein automated voting and counting of votes will be implemented on an experimental basis in two selected provinces and two cities each in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.
But Comelec executive director for operations Jose Tolentino could not make a commitment whether the poll body can set in place an automatic system between now and May 2008 which is the new date proposed by Gordon for the twin elections.
Tolentino said what the Comelec has in mind is to automate the election in the Automous Region in Muslim Mindanao scheduled in August 2008.
Nalupta admitted that if the SK elections are postponed by two years, this will put to waste the P138-million spent by the government for the recent registration of six million new youth voters. Fel V. Maragay
Gordon presented his compromise formula to shorten the deferment of the twin elections by only one year to enable the Commission on Elections to automate in preparation for the 2010 national and local elections.
His proposal deviates from the supposedly unanimous stand taken by the senators in a recent caucus opposing any delay in the village and youth council polls.
“The Automated Electoral System Act of 2007 says the elections should be automated. And I’ll see to it that this is implemented for the barangay and SK elections even on a pilot basis,” Gordon told a public hearing.
The senator from Olongapo City broached his suggestion as barangay chairmen and councilmen came in droves to the Senate to express their support for the poll deferment.
The village officials, numbering over a thousand, were herded by Jose Marty Lim, president of the League of Barangays.
But representatives of the Department of the Interior and Local Government and Commission on Elections said if they will have their way, the polls should be held as scheduled because the activities have gone into high gear and hundreds of millions of pesos have already been spent for them.
Richard Nalupta, chairman of the National Youth Commission, said they favor the deferment to give Congress time to enact a law that would reform the SK.
Nalupta said the reforms include the adjustment in the age bracket for the youth from 15 to 17 to 15 to 21 years of age. He said the proposed law also contains an anti-dynasty provision which will disqualify close relatives of incumbent governors and mayors from running for SK positions.
Gordon said the provision of the AES law should be enforced in the barangay and SK elections wherein automated voting and counting of votes will be implemented on an experimental basis in two selected provinces and two cities each in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.
But Comelec executive director for operations Jose Tolentino could not make a commitment whether the poll body can set in place an automatic system between now and May 2008 which is the new date proposed by Gordon for the twin elections.
Tolentino said what the Comelec has in mind is to automate the election in the Automous Region in Muslim Mindanao scheduled in August 2008.
Nalupta admitted that if the SK elections are postponed by two years, this will put to waste the P138-million spent by the government for the recent registration of six million new youth voters. Fel V. Maragay
posted by OlongapoCity Zambales at
11:51 PM
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