A MILITANT leader in Negros Occidental assailed President Rodrigo Duterte for skipping the synchronized Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections yesterday, May 14.
Michael de la Concepcion, secretary-general of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan)-Negros, said they were not surprised by the move of Duterte.
“The highest elected official did not exercise his democratic right. After getting a landslide victory in 2016, Duterte belittles the democratic exercises,” he said.
For the past two postponements of Barangay and SK polls, Duterte is in the forefront of advocating it, even signed an executive order, he said.
“Counter-intuitively branding the barangay officials as drug-ridden,” he added.
He noted the Duterte administration campaigned for the revolutionary government in 2017, using it as extra-legal means to overhaul the constitution.
“It failed obviously since Duterte cannot revolt against the government he leads,” he said.
Recently, a quo warranto petition sponsored by Solicitor General Jose Calida, an office attached in the Department of Justice directly reporting to the Palace ousted Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, he said, “it creates more question to the democratic process.”
“Duterte opting not to vote without given explanation is an awful example of leadership, who won a landslide victory,” he said.