House panel OKs committee report on bill postponing 2020 barangay, SK polls

The House Committee on Suffrage and Electoral Reforms on Monday approved its committee report on the bill postponing the May 2020 barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections to the second Monday of May 2023.

During its meeting, which only took about five minutes, the panel approved the motion of Cavite Representative Elpidio Barzaga Jr. to approve the committee report.

House suffrage and electoral reforms panel approves its committee report on the bills postponing the 2020 barangay and SK elections to the 2nd Monday of May 2023. @gmanews pic.twitter.com/mwNMaQF1u5

— Erwin Colcol (@erwincolcol) September 30, 2019

Cagayan De Oro City Representative Rufus Rodriguez seconded Barzaga's motion.

Following the approval of the committee report, it will be transmitted to the Committee on Rules which will calendar the bill for plenary consideration.

At least 40 bills proposing the postponement of the  May 2020 barangay and SK polls had been filed in the House of Representatives.

Among the authors of the measure were House Majority Leader Ferdinand Romualdez, Deputy Speaker Paolo Duterte, Compostela Valley Representative Way Kurat Zamora, Isabela Representative Inno Dy, and Dumper party-list Representative Claudine Diana Bautista.

“There is a need to rectify the truncated terms of incumbent barangay and SK officials to enable them to have more time to finish their programs and projects for the interest and welfare of their barangays,” read House Bill 3937, one of the bills seeking the postponement of the barangay and SK polls, of which Duterte was one of the authors.

The postponement of the 2020 barangay and SK elections was part of the initial list of common priority measures of Malacañang and Congress.

In fact, Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano earlier said the budget supposedly intended for the conduct of the 2020 barangay polls would be reallocated to items needing funding.

The items include the procurement of palay for local farmers, the improvement of the K-12 program, and the implementation of the Expanded National Integrated Protected Areas System Act. —KG, GMA News