Senate, House urged to agree on brgy polls

MANILA, Philippines – There is a need for both chambers of Congress to agree on whether the barangay elections scheduled for October should be held or not and present the unified position to President Benigno Aquino, the chairman of the House of Representatives’ committee on suffrage and electoral reforms said Thursday.

“I think the best time to make a consensus is this early…We can’t afford a clash between branches, that is something that the country can’t afford at this moment,” Cavite Representative Elpidio Barzaga Jr. told the Serye news forum in Quezon City.

At the same time Barzaga served notice that his committee would continue tackling the bills and resolutions calling for the postponement of the village polls despite Aquino’s wish that it push through as scheduled.

There are 21 measures calling for the postponement of the barangay elections to 2011, 2012 or 2013, which Barzaga said would be consolidated. No measure has been filed, however, for the abolition of the Sangguniang Kabataan or for succeeding barangay elections to be synchronized with the 2013 national elections, which Aquino also wants.

Proposals to postpone the barangay elections received overwhelming support from lawmakers and local government executives who attended the suffrage committee’s first hearing on the issue Wednesday.

Barzaga and several lawmakers have asked Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. to call a caucus to firm up their position on the issue. “We need to have a consensus because we are running against time,” he said.

The Commission on Elections has said Congress should pass by the first week of September on whether or not to hold the barangay elections.

The Liberal Party, to which Aquino belongs, has not met to discuss the matter but Mandaluyong Representative Neptali Gonzales II and Quezon Representative Lorenzo Tañada III said there is no party stand on the issue.

“I don’t think there is a party stand, each will have his own vote,” Gonzales said.

Tañada said the issue would be settled “by a vote when the issue gets to the floor.”