Limlingan: Another postponement of the polls

AS FAR as the Commission on Elections (Comelec) is concerned, the 2017 Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (SK) would push through. This despite that Senate had earlier approved on third and final reading the measure resetting the barangay and youth polls to May 2018 with the House of Representatives also made a similar move.

Both houses of Congress agreed to allow incumbent barangay officials to serve on holdover capacity until the elections are held by next year. This means that their terms of offices would be again extended.

A lot of people, both possible candidates and the electorates are in quandary over the possible postponement of the polls. They are left hanging by the move of the national legislature for any postponement that may happen.

President Rodrigo Duterte, meanwhile, is known to be in favor of the postponement of the polls despite his wanting to weed out barangay officials whom he accused of being involved in the illegal drugs trade.

As a matter of legislative processes, once the Congress (both houses of Senate and Representatives) has certified the legislative measure of postponing the polls as urgent, the President is mandated then to implement the said legislative act of resetting to next year the date of the elections.

I asked a friend from the Comelec and asked him directly if the elections would be held this month or otherwise. He retorted saying “most likely”.

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First there was the bird flu outbreak, then there was the Japanese encephalitis, then the fish kill. These are the three threats that were experienced recently by Kapampangans in different parts of the province.

These are considered disasters whom we had to face and find resolutions to properly address them and somehow mitigate their effects to man. While there were victims indeed who were affected, the resiliency of Kapampangans was again tested.

Perhaps there is no harsher test to Kapampangan resiliency than the Mt. Pinatubo erupted in 1991. Many were left thinking then that it’s the end of the world when the skies went dark in the early afternoon of the eruption and when it rained tons of sand and stones.

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I was saddened by the news on the early morning of Saturday that Jose Taruc, Jr. aka “Joe Taruc” has signed 30. “Manong Joe” as he was fondly called, died peacefully in his sleep sans feeling the pain of the ailments he had.

Manong Joe is an institution in the world of radio broadcast. Since I was a child, I never miss hearing his voice every early morning in his radio program “Damdaming Bayan”. His voice is very popular especially in the countryside.

A day seemed to be incomplete without folks in the barrios listening to the voice of the said broadcaster in tandem with another veteran radioman “Lakay” Deo Macalma who popularized the “Bubwit” segment of their radio commentary program.

Rest in Peace Manong Joe.

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