Zubiri: Senate measures on BSKE postponement underway

Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri  says that about 80 percent of the members of the Senate favor the postponement of the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections in December 2022, moving it to December 2023. (Erwin P. Nicavera Photo)
Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri says that about 80 percent of the members of the Senate favor the postponement of the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections in December 2022, moving it to December 2023. (Erwin P. Nicavera Photo)

SENATE President Juan Miguel Zubiri said measures for the postponement of the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (BSKE) at the upper chamber of the Congress are also underway.

Zubiri, who led the groundbreaking for the construction of Multipurpose Building and Bacolod City General Hospital in the city’s Barangay Vista Alegre yesterday, September 9, said the Senate Committee on Electoral Reforms People’s Participation chaired by Senator Imee Marcos already prepared a committee report.

“We will be taking it up next week during the plenary session,” the Negrense senator said, adding that “overall, I’d say that about 80 percent of our fellow members in the Senate favor the postponement.

Hopefully, we’ll have the elections by December 2023, the Senate president said.

Earlier, the House of Representatives committee on suffrage and electoral reforms approved on first reading tthe measures that seek to postpone the BSKE polls.

It is scheduled to be conducted on December 5, 2022, but the measures filed at the House of Representatives want it postponed to December 2023.

The House panel voted 12-2 for the postponement.

This happened despite the Commission on Elections (Comelec) Commissioner George Garcia’s warning that moving it to a later date would mean additional costs.

In his explanation during the committee recently, Garcia said the Comelec would have to resume the voter registration by October this year if the BSKE is postponed.

Holding the voter registration again would mean a bigger budget as the Comelec has to set a budget for it, as well as for voting materials.

In a related development, the Comelec continues to prepare for the forthcoming December BSKE despite ongoing talks of possible postponement.

This, as it opened the public bidding for the supply of ballot boxes to be used in the December 5 electoral exercise.

Based on its Invitation to Bid, the Comelec is looking to acquire 22,054 units of ballot boxes for an approved budget of P110,270,000, or a unit price of P5,000 per ballot box.

"Bids received in excess of the total ABC shall automatically be rejected at the Bid Opening," said the Comelec-Bids and Awards Committee (BAC).

The poll body said bidding documents may be acquired from Mondays to Saturdays, between 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., at the BAC Secretariat Office located at the FEMII Building in Intramuros, Manila, or from the Comelec's website (www.comelec.gov.ph).

A pre-bid conference for all prospective bidders will also be held on Wednesday, September 14 at 10 a.m. via Microsoft Teams.

The deadline for the electronic submission of bids to the Comelec-BAC secretariat is on Wednesday, September 28 at 8 a.m.

On the other hand, the opening of the bids is set also on September 28 at 10 a.m. and will be done online via Microsoft Teams.

Several bills have been filed in Congress for the postponement of the December 2022 barangay and youth polls. (With reports from SunStar Philippines)

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