House OKs bill moving barangay, SK polls to May 2018 on 2nd reading

The House of Representatives has approved on second reading a measure postponing the synchronized barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections from October 23, 2017 to the second Monday of May 2018.

House Bill 6308, which consolidated five other bills and one resolution of the same purposed, was approved on second reading Wednesday night.

Under the bill, incumbent barangay officials will be on hold-over positions until they are replaced by their successors after the elections.

Subsequent elections will also be held on the second Monday of May 2020 and every three years thereafter.

In a text message to reporters, House Committee on Suffrage and Electoral Reforms chair Sherwin Tugna said that with the bill's approval, the Congress is one step closer to its goal to allow current barangay officials to help in alleviating illegal drugs.

"Its approval on second reading nears Congress in our goal not to burden our frontliner on the campaign against illegal drugs [barangay officials] on the ground level," he said.

The lawmaker added that the bill may be approved on third and final reading on Monday next week.

The Senate, meanwhile, has yet to approve a bill filed by Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III on the postponement of the Barangay and SK elections.

Sotto's bill proposes the postponement of the elections to October 2018.

The Commission on Elections had stated a preference for May 2018 or 2020 if the polls were to be postponed, saying that October 2018 would be too close to the May 2019 midterm elections.

Last June, Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III said that they will wait for the House to act on the proposed measure first before deciding on Sotto's bill. — BM, GMA News