Bacolod City – While there are proposals to postpone the synchronized barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections set for December this year, the Commission on Elections is currently preparing for it, as they have a time line to follow, said Provincial Comelec Supervisor Roberto Salazar.
House Majority Leader Martin Romualdez, a cousin of President-elect Ferdinand Marcos Jr, who is expected to assume the speakership in the 19th Congress, earlier said that lawmakers are looking into the possibility of rescheduling the barangay and SK elections, to save P8 billion which could be used for pandemic funds.
Salazar said they have already received an order from Comelec to conduct an inventory of ballot boxes, registration forms of voters, among others, in preparation for the barangay elections.
Unless there is a law postponing the elections, we have to prepare for it, he added.
As to the budget for the barangay and SK elections, Salazar said “I would supposed there is, as Congress, in consideration of all activities undertaken this year, maybe they have included allocations for the barangay elections.”
The Barangay and SK elections have been postponed thrice since 2016.
Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson earlier said that if the barangay and SK elections are postponed, it should be held next year.
The Department of Interior and Local Government had said that the postponement of the 2022 barangay polls should be left to the incoming administration and 19th Congress to decide. (Gilbert Bayoran via The Visayan Daily Star (TVDS), photo courtesy of TVDS)