Youth group opposes postponement of SK, village polls

A YOUTH group in Cagayan de Oro City is opposing the postponement of the Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) or Youth Council and village elections which was signed into law by President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday, December 3.

The President moved the polls to December 5, 2022 instead of the scheduled May 11, 2020 elections, which allows incumbent village officials to be in power for five years instead of just two years.

Barug Kabatan-onan Movement president Kenneth Piloton said the two-year term of village officials is enough for them to implement their projects.

He also said the postponement deprives a lot of youth leaders to become SK officials because of the age limit.

“But since it is already signed, we can no longer do anything about it. We now challenge our officials to maximize the postponement of the elections and make use of their additional years in office in giving an honest and genuine service to their constituents,” he said.

“Barangay (village) officials and SK officials should practice and encourage participatory governance so that people will not be just mere beneficiaries of our programs and projects but our partners,” Piloton added.

Cagayan de Oro 2nd District Representative Rufus Rodriguez, the co-author of the law, described it as a “good law”.

Rodriguez said the two-year term of village officials is unreasonable and impractical.

“They now have 4 years and 7 months in order for them to implement their programs for their barangays. They should take this is as a challenge, they should work hard,” he said.

Rodriguez said after the success of this law, he will now work to amend the law and make the local officials’ length of service from two years to five years permanently.

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