A LAWMAKER sees improved services in the grassroots level following the postponement of the Barangay and Sanguniang Kabataan (SK) elections.
Baguio City Representative Marquez Go said with barangay officials terms extended, it is hoped their services to their barangays in the whole country will be better.
"One of the reasons is that we had our elections in 2018 and if that would only be until 2020, then that will not reach the prescribed three year term which is why we wanted that to be three years also. If we were to conduct an elections in 2011, according to the Commission On Elections, it is so near for the next elections which is 2022," Go said.
President Rodrigo Duterte signed into law the bill postponing the elections.
Republic Act 11462 moves the elections from May 2020 to the first Monday of December 2022, with barangay and SK officials elected in May 2018 serving for five years, instead of two.
"My suggestion was to conduct the elections in October of 2022 and the consensus was to do the elections in December 2022 so that the start of their term would start on January of 2023 and every three years thereafter, elections will be done as far as the Barangay and SK Elections is concerned," Go added.
Barangay and SK elections had been postponed twice before the May 2018 elections. The first postponement was from October 2016 to October 2017, and October 2017 to May 2018.
"What is mandated by the law in extending terms for local and national officials is to amend the constitution, but for the narangay and SK, what is provided for by our laws is that it is only the Congress which can change the dates of the elections, or there should be a law extending their terms," Go said.
The postponement is supposed to save the government some P5.77 billion.