NEGROS Occidental Governor Alfredo Marañon Jr. said Tuesday, March 20, he considers the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) or Youth Council elections as the “most expensive” polls.
He added it is more than 50 percent to push through.
Despite the approval of the bill postponing the barangay and SK elections in the House of Representatives, it won't prosper because of lack of time and absence of a counterpart bill in the Senate, Marañon said.
"They have postponed the barangay and SK elections last year, they should have made the postponement until October which is only about five months to go after May. So I think the chances that it will push through is more than 50 percent,” the governor said.
He said, he considers the barangay election as the most expensive, more expensive than the presidential election because more candidates will be participating.
He added there are 42,000 barangays all over the country.
"That billions of money that will be spent for the barangay and SK elections should be spent on projects which are beneficial to the people,” he stressed.
The barangay and SK elections were set in 2016, but this was moved to 2017 then to May this year, as allies of President Rodrigo Duterte alleged the danger of drug money infiltrating the local elections.
The proponents of the latest move to postpone the polls are arguing that a postponement would help in the shift to a federal system of government since an envisioned plebiscite can be conducted simultaneously with the village and youth polls.
Provincial elections supervisor Jessie Suarez said he believes the elections will push through on May 14 despite the move of the lawmakers for its postponement.
"We have been prepared for the election. The Senate is not acting on the postponement so the elections will push through,” he added.