On proposal to appoint barangay OICs, Gordon aims to seek help of local community

Senator Richard Gordon on Tuesday vowed to "balance" the proposal of appointing officers-in-charge (OICs) in barangays by looking into the suggestions of the local community.

In an interview with Senate media, Gordon said Senate President Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel III proposed that President Rodrigo Duterte be allowed to appoint OICs.

The said provision is not included in the bill passed by the House of Representatives on third reading.

The provisions are part of the proposed legislation aimed to move the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections from October 2017 to May 2018.

Pimentel and Duterte belong to the same political party. Pimentel is the president of PDP-Laban or Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan, while Duterte sits as chairman.

"I know that will be going to be controversial and that’s why I am prepared to accept an amendment. That was the proposal of Senate President Pimentel and I am not blaming him for that but out of respect to the Senate President, I put it there, to be fair he didn’t ask me I just put it there," Gordon said.

"Uunahan ko na kayo, to balance that off, I would have to see the appointment based on the recommendation of community... the local peace and order council, the local PTA or the local representative of the local churches or just the first two and I think that would balance it off," Gordon added.

According to Committee Report No. 163, authored by Gordon and Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III, “Until their successors shall have been duly elected and qualified, or until the President, through the Executive Secretary, shall appoint officers-in-charge for the barangay, all incumbent barangay officials shall remain in office, unless sooner removed or suspended for cause."

The report, moreover, states that the inclusion of the name of an incumbent barangay official in the “validated” drug list in Duterte's possession is enough ground to be replaced with an OIC.

The House of Representatives, for its part, has approved on third and final reading the measure postponing the local elections from October 23, 2017 to the second Monday of May 2018.

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

Duterte has pushed for the postponement of the barangay elections and replace incumbent officials with appointive officers-in-charge, as he speculated that 40 percent of the incumbent barangay captains nationwide are supposedly involved in illegal drugs. — BAP, GMA News