Senate to push for deferment of barangay, SK polls

The House may have failed to act on the bill seeking the postponement of the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections in October but the Senate will definitely move to have the two elections deferred, said Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The senators had earlier considered pushing for the synchronization of the Barangay and SK polls with the 2013 midterm elections. Marcos, however, said that placing the Barangay and SK elections between 2010 and 2013 would be more practical. "The best answer would be to igitna (conduct it in the middle)," he said after a Senate committee hearing on the postponement of the October polls. The senator, who heads the Senate committee on local government, explained that their proposal will help the Commission on Elections (Comelec) avoid the "nightmare" of synchronizing the 2013 polls. "Logistical problems would (also) be addressed kung gitna (if it was conducted in the middle of the two)," he said. He said that if the poll body would have to include the names of the candidates for the Barangay and SK elections on the ballot for the 2013 elections, the Comelec would have to print more than 42,000 ballot faces. He explained it would not only make delivery and ballot printing difficult, it would also cancel out the supposed savings of synchronizing the elections. Marcos likewise said that their proposal would erase the problem of conducting local polls just after a "divisive" national elections. "(It should be) as far as we can get it from the national elections," he said. Earlier, several stakeholders asserted that the Barangay and SK polls should not be conducted "so close" to the May 2010 automated elections because the leaders in several areas have yet to settle in. Marcos said that they plan consolidate his bill, which asks for a one-year postponement, and Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri's bill, which seeks to move the October 2010 polls to 2012. "We're going to consolidate all the Senate bills regarding this issue. We'll recraft our bills," he said, adding that they will also tackle the possible amendments to the automation law and the restructuring of the SK in the consolidated bill. On Sunday, Ricky Carandang of the Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office said President Benigno Aquino III may veto any bill seeking for a postponement of the October elections. Marcos, however, said that they have enough arguments to convince the President to decide otherwise. - VVP, GMANews.TV