ORIENTAL Mindoro Representative Reynaldo Umali has asked the House of Representatives to reschedule anew the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections.
Umali said in a statement that he has already filed a bill to cancel the elections scheduled for May this year.
The barangay and SK elections have already been reset once, from October 31, 2016 to May 14, 2018.
"Nag-file na po ako ng bill para ipagpaliban yung barangay election. Pag yun ay sinusugan ng aming mga kasama at alam mo naman sa Kongreso may supermajority ay palagay ko ay mangyayari yun (I filed a bill seeking to postpone the barangay election. If my colleagues support it, I think it will happen)," he said.
Umali said the rescheduling is needed so that Congress can focus on revising the 1987 Constitution.
"No-el kasi masyado nang masikip ang Mayo, kailangan naming mabuo yung Konstitusyon para magkaron ng plebesito. Paano namin magagawa yun in two months? Hindi namin kaya. Actually one month na lang kasi Pebrero na rin ngayon so isang buwan na lang ang kailangan," he said.
(No-el because May is too close. We need to finish revising the Constitution and submit it to a plebiscite. How can we do that in two months? Actually, we have one month left because it's already February.)
"Papaano namin matatapos yun? So ako ang aking tinutulak ay yung Barangay at SK elections ay ipagpaliban natin para maka-concentrate kami doon sa pagbabalangkas ng magandang porma ng gobyerno-federal in support of President Digong sa campaign promise at saka yung Charter change mismo," Umali added.
Leaders of the House earlier said that they want the revised Constitution to be submitted for plebiscite that will be held simultaneously with the barangay elections in May.
If this will not happen, Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez said they will submit it for voting in the midterm polls in 2019.
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) early this week said they were 85-percent ready for the forthcoming elections.
According to Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez, the poll body will print the remaining 18 million ballots needed for the polls this February 15. (SunStar Philippines)