Barangay polls will soon be automated, too

Barangay elections were first held in the country on May 17, 1982. It was set by Batas Pambansa Bilang 222, or the Barangay Election Act of 1982. At that time, there were about 42,000 or so barangays nationwide. Up for grabs are the positions of one barangay chairman/captain and six kagawad or barangay councilors.

Subsequently, Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections were held on December 4,1992 following the enactment of the 1991 Local Government Code of the Philippines. The SK, or the Youth Council is the governing body in every chapter of the Katipunan ng Kabataan (Youth Federation) all over the country.

A barangay, as we know it, is the smallest political unit into which cities and municipalities in the Philippines are divided. As of latest inventory of the Commission on Elections (Comelec), we have 18 regions, 82 provinces, 148 cities, 1,486 municipalities and 42,027 barangays.

And counting. Through gerrymandering laws, the 19th Congress and Congresses past created these new political susbdivisions.

Comelec spokesman John Rex Laudiangco announced the poll body is ready to conduct the next plebiscite on July 8 this year to convert the municipality of Carmona into a component city of Cavite. President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. (PBBM) signed into law the conversion as Republic Act (RA) 11938 on Feb.24. If ratified in a plebiscite, Carmona will become the eighth city in the province after Cavite City, Trece Martires, Tagaytay, Dasmariñas, Bacoor, Imus, and General Trias.

It was during the term of former President Rodrigo Duterte when a number of political subdivisions were done on big provinces like Davao, Palawan and Maguindanao. The former Davao City Mayor signed RA 10360 on July 23, 2013 that created the Province of Davao Occidental that was carved out from the present Davao del Sur and got approved in a plebiscite conducted by the Comelec. However, the people of Palawan rejected in a plebiscite in March, 2021 the Duterte signed law RA 11259 that sought to subdivide the province into Palawan del Norte, Palawan del Sur, and Palawan Oriental.

The last one was dividing the province of Maguindanao under RA 11550 into Maguindanao del Sur and Maguindanao del Norte. Approved into law in 2021 by former President Duterte, it was ratified in a plebiscite in Sept., 2022.

Last April 6, Malacanang announced PBBM has appointed officers-in-charge (OICs) of the newly divided provinces. Named as OICs were Abdulraof Macacua and Mariam Mangudadatu of Maguindanao del Norte and Maguindanao del Sur, respectively. Also designated were, Fatima Ainee Sinsuat and Nathaniel Midtimbang as OICs of the offices of the vice governors of Maguindanao del Norte and Maguindanao del Sur, respectively.

Macacua immediately took his oath before President Marcos. Macacua was former senior minister of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority.

However, this did not sit well to incumbent Maguindanao Gov. Mangudadatu who won the Governorship in the entire province during the May 9 elections last year. She argued that she automatically becomes the Governor of Maguindanao del Sur. This was provided in Paragraph (d), Section 50 of RA 11559 which states: “The incumbent Governor of the present Province of Maguindanao shall remain of the Province of Maguindanao del Sur.”

She reportedly refused to take her oath as OIC Governor while mulling to seek the intervention of the Supreme Court if Malacanang would not correct the situation. To date, Malacanang has not recalled the OIC designations nor responded to Gov. Mangudadatu.

Meanwhile, the Commission on Human Rights (CHR), in coordination with the Bangsamoro Human Rights Commission, has initiated independent investigations into recent killings of at least four barangay officials in the Maguindanao provinces. In an official statement yesterday, the CHR reminded all concerned government agencies “to ensure heightened alertness and implement preventive mechanisms, especially in hotspot election areas, to prevent further violence and similar attacks.”

With a measly P1,000 monthly pay, risking to get elected as barangay/SK chairman is too a high price for one’s life. But with the implementation of the Mandanas ruling of the Supreme Court, they, too, may likely get some windfall from the higher internal revenue allotments this year.

In a nine-page resolution promulgated last March 22, the Comelec released the revised calendar of activities and schedules for prohibited acts related to the holding of the twin polls. The new schedule for the filing of the certificates of candidacies (COCs) will be from Aug. 28 to Sept. 2.

During our Kapihan sa Manila Bay last week, Laudiangco disclosed the poll body will conduct the pilot-testing of the proposed automation of the BSKE in three barangays that were selected based on the sample size voting population. According to Laudiangco, the vote counting machines (VCMs) owned and operated by the Comelec will be used for the pilot testing in these three barangays.

As approved by the seven-man poll body headed by Comelec chairman George Garcia, the pre-selected, the automated polls will be pilot-tested in two barangays in Dasmariñas City in Cavite, namely, in Bgy.Poblacion with 1,000 voters and in Bgy. Paliparan with 35,000 voters. To represent large voters population, the Comelec picked Bgy.Pasong Tamo in the 6th district in Quezon City with 45,000 voters.

After being twice postponed in 2020 and in 2022, the barangay and SK elections will finally take place on Oct.30 this year as reset by RA 11935. The last BSKE were held in 2018. Like our elected local government officials, all barangay and SK officials have only three-year term of office and are also limited to three consecutive terms.

From the very start, not once did I exercise the right of suffrage in barangay elections. Simply because I don’t know  the candidates.

Although our country has already automated election system in the conduct of national and local polls, the voting and counting of BSKE for the rest of the country will again be done manually as usual, for now.