Speaking during the launching of this city’s state-of-the-art emergency and disaster command center at city hall last Wednesday, Pamintuan assured his audience, including Central Luzon police director Chief Supt. Aaron Aquino, other LCMP mayors, and local government officials, that there would not be barangay elections this October.
He noted that while there is yet no law allowing the mere appointment of local officials, the plan is for the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) to merely name officers-in-charge in barangays nationwide.
“It is to be expected that the DILG would consult with mayors and other officials in regard to the competence of barangay officials who could be retained as OICs,” he said.
Last May, Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III filed a bill postponing the barangay and sangguniang kabataan (SK) elections to October 2018.
A pending bill at the House of Representatives, meanwhile, seeks to reset the barangay elections to May 2020.
Sotto filed Senate Bill 1469 on May 23 to postpone the said elections from the fourth Monday of October this year to the fourth Monday of October next year.
The senator said the proposal was an “answer to the appeal of President Duterte.”
Duterte earlier alleged that 40 percent of all barangay captains are involved in illegal drugs. He said he was considering appointing barangay captains, instead of pushing through with the elections.
“In answer to the appeal of President Duterte, this measure postponing the October 2017 Barangay Elections is being proposed. In this way, the investigation and validation for the possible link to illegal drugs of the 40 percent of the barangay captains nationwide shall not be hampered,” Sotto said.
“And the further resolution of this problem would lead to the better implementation and accomplishment of the government programs as these barangay captains are the primary enforcers of the same,” he added.
Under the proposal, the term of office of incumbent barangay and SK officials shall be extended.
