MANILA, Philippines — Members of the House of Representatives cannot be wiser than officials of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) with regard to the conduct of elections, especially if the poll body is more than willing to take on the task despite tight schedules.
This was the position taken by independent opposition lawmaker Rep. Edcel Lagman who, along with a few others from the militant Makabayan bloc, opposed postponement of the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) polls set for Dec. 5 this year.
“The proffered reason that the Comelec needs a respite after conducting the May 2022 national and local elections does not obtain, because the Comelec itself has repeatedly said it is ready to conduct the barangay and SK elections this December,” Lagman said.
Lagman made the statement following the decision of the House to approve on second reading the consolidated bill postponing the elections to the first week of December 2023.
“No less than Comelec Chairman George Garcia relayed to legislators that a postponement of the barangay elections will be a costly exercise because additional funds would be needed amounting to P18.358 billion,” Lagman insisted.
The budget will come from Comelec’s P7.5-billion “savings” as continuing appropriation and an additional budget of P10.858 billion.
“Elections are the bedrock of democratic governments. Democracy at the grassroots must be assured by holding regular elections for barangay and SK officials and should not be imperiled by repeated postponements of grassroots elections,” he said.
These are among what he called “overriding grounds” that should reject the House decision, aside from the fact that the purported P8-billion savings in such poll deferment obviously would not fly, even if these are “realigned” for pandemic recovery purposes.
“The aforesaid reason is utterly unconstitutional because the Comelec enjoys fiscal autonomy, which includes a prohibition that any appropriations released to the Comelec cannot be countermanded by the executive and utilized for other purposes,” Lagman said.
In a hybrid session on Tuesday, administration lawmakers unanimously approved House Bill 4673, a consolidation of 43 separate bills authored by at least 82 House members, about three months before the originally scheduled political exercise.
House Majority Leader Manuel Jose Dalipe of Zamboanga City said the Senate has made a clear commitment that they would pass its counterpart measure to allow the postponement of the barangay elections.
Subsequent synchronized election was set on the first Monday of 2026 and every three years thereafter.
Once the bill is passed into law, incumbent barangay and SK officials will retain their positions on a holdover capacity “unless sooner removed or suspended for cause.”