Barangay execs got extra years in office from poll postponements

With an unbroken term of office of 17 years, Xyrus Lanot of Barangay South Triangle in Quezon City may very well be one of the longest-serving barangay captains in recent history.

Starting out as a kagawad in 1989, he took over the top barangay post in 1990 when the elected barangay captain turned out to be ineligible for the position. As he relinquishes his post this year, Lanot joins other barangay officials who have reached the three-term limit.

There are around 38 of them in Quezon City alone –barangay officials who were elected in 1994 and subsequently re-elected in 1997 and 2002. All of them have been holding their positions for more than a decade already. Nearly one-third of their stay in office may be attributed to barangay election postponements resulting in extended terms.

“OK lang yung postponement," Lanot told GMA News Research in a phone interview. Lanot stayed four more years in office because of the 2000 and 2005 postponements. “It’s an advantage in the sense na yung mga inisip naming gawing proyekto, nagagawa nang hindi napuputol," he said.

After the first barangay polls in 1982, only the 1994 and 1997 elections proceeded as scheduled. Barangay elections originally set in May 1988 were moved to November 1988 and then moved again to March 1989; the 2000 barangay polls, meanwhile, were reset to 2002, held in sync with the Sangguniang Kabataan elections.

Last Monday’s barangay and SK elections were supposed to take place two years ago. But in 2005, Congress decided against pushing through with the polls and instead reset it to 2007.

Even the 2007 barangay and SK elections would have been pushed back to a later date, had the House of Representatives had its way. House Bill 2417, one of 13 legislative measures seeking to delay the polls, was approved on final reading at the Lower House just weeks away from October 29. The bill, however, did not prosper at the Senate.

But while deferring the barangay elections resulted in extra years for incumbent officials to stay in office, subsequent laws shortened the barangay officials’ terms. The six-year term set for barangay officials in 1982 was cut to five years by 1989. Then in 1991, the Local Government Code further reduced the term of barangay officials to three years, counted from the 1994 elections.

Ending almost two decades of service at Barangay South Triangle, Lanot kidded that he is about to become “jobless. " He won’t miss his old post—he still lives in the area, so he will still get to talk and mingle with his former constituents even after he’s out of office. But he said he could use a job. “Gusto ko ng trabaho na visible pa rin ako sa tao," he said. “Plano kong tumakbo bilang councilor sa 2010."with reports from Mary Ann Señir