Comelec open to postponement of barangay, SK polls

Just days after winding up voter registrations for the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) polls, the Commission on Elections on Wednesday said "let’s talk about postponement" even as it said it is open to have the exercise rescheduled to 2011. At the hearing of the House committee on suffrage and electoral reforms, Comelec chairman Jose Armando Melo reiterated the poll body’s request to Congress to enact a law postponing the October 25 elections. He even asked lawmakers to inform the Comelec as soon as possible, preferably on the first week of September, if the elections would not push through this year. "We are ready to hold the elections but having known the sentiments of members of Congress, let’s talk about postponement now," Melo said. The Comelec chairman said the earlier Congress passes a law — or at least make an assurance that the barangay and SK polls would be postponed — the better. “Para yung level of comfort ng Comelec kung alam naming mapo-postpone, we would not go into unnecessary expenses and preparation, hindi na kami gagalaw. Pero kung we are left hanging mahirap naman yun," he said. Before Melo was allowed to talk, the authors of the 21 bills and resolutions filed for the postponement of the elections were given a chance to explain their proposals. Huge expenses In an interview, Melo said the Comelec prefers to hold the barangay and SK polls in October 2011 because the poll body would be busy by 2012 preparing for the 2013 midterm elections. He added it would also be impractical to synchronize the barangay and SK (youth council) elections with the midterm polls in 2013, or with the elections for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) in August 2011. “Kung sa 2013 isasabay [sa] automated elections mahihirapan tayo dahil andaming preparasyon niyan. Yun lang sa balota sa bawat barangay, ibang klaseng balota, ibang klaseng listahan ng mga tao, ng kandidato sa bawat barangay,"(If we synchronize the polls with 2013's there will a lot of preparations. The ballots are different in each brangay, there will be different voters' lists and lists of names of candidates)," he said. He said the expenses for the huge task could run from P22 to 28 billion. “Masyadong malaki. Can we afford it?" Melo said. He added the barangay and SK polls need not be automated because there is no transmission of results required. “Kung isasabay sa 2013, the barangay and SK polls have to be automated dahil hindi naman pwedeng sa senators, at other officials ay automated pagktapos merong manual. Hindi naman magandang sistema yun(But if we have to do the barangay and SK polls in 2013, we need to automate the system as well, because elections for senators are automated)," Melo said. He further said the ARMM elections would be automated to minimize violence. “Gusto namin na automated ang ARMM elections dahil talagang me kaguluhan diyan. Kung magma-manual tayo sa ARMM elections maraming gulo na naman," he said. As the poll body continues its preparations for the polls, Melo said it has already used up P168 million of the P200-million allotment for the registration which ended over the weekend. Also during the hearing, Budget and Management director Bingle Gutierrez assured the panel there are enough funds to push through with the barangay and SK elections. All-member caucus Cavite Rep Elpidio Barzaga, chairman of the House committee on suffrage, said he will be meeting with Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Wednesday afternoon to call for an all-member caucus on the issue. “In order to find out what would really be the decision of the House members because we don’t want to approve a postponement and it will not be supported by the majority of the House. It will be useless," the lawmaker said. He expressed confidence Congress would be able to pass the law postponing the October 25 polls. “I’m a little bit confident because right now there are 22 authors and so far in our initial hearing no member of the House categorically expressed that he is against the postponement," he said. He believed they can finish the committee report next week, submit it to the plenary the week after and then vote on it. “I think the Senate, if it is the consensus of the senators, would be doing similar thing," he said. Told that President Benigno Simeon Aquino III could veto the bill, if passed, following his earlier statement rejecting the postponement of the polls, Barzaga believed Belmonte and Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile could talk the President out of it. "The Speaker and the Senate President are close to the President. The Senate leadership as well as the House leadership have to contact the President and find out what would be his position because it would be an exercise in futility on the part of the House or the Senate if we will be fast-tracking this bill and the President will just veto it," he said. The committee formed a technical working group to consolidate all the bills on the postponement of the polls. The consolidated bills will be discussed Monday next week. — LBG, GMANews.TV