MANILA, Philippines — Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez said the House of Representatives will push for the postponement of the barangay elections, scheduled in October this year, and appoint officers-in-charge for the more than 40,000 villages in the country.
Several measures have been filed at the House seeking the postponement of the village polls. These are being deliberated at the committee level. Alvarez said he would ask President Rodrigo Duterte to certify the measure urgent.
Like Duterte, Alvarez claims many, if not most, barangay officials are involved in the illegal drug trade, against which the government is waging a war that has claimed more than 10,000 lives since last year.
If allowed to run again, Alvarez believes the barangay leaders are likely to win another mandate.
With the proposed measure, “ang mangyayari dito, ipo-postpone namin iyong election tapos hindi na puwedeng holdover (what will happen is we postpone the election and then there will be no holdovers),” he said in a radio interview. “Mag–a-appoint na lang ng OIC iyong DILG (Department of Interior and Local Governent) siguro (OICs will be appointed, maybe by the DILG).”
The appointed officials will serve until the next election is decided.
He said he has talked to Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III, who asked him to transmit a copy of the bill.
