Polls postponement, costly - COMELEC

"Postponing the Barangay and SK polls, doesn't come cheaply."  COMELEC spokesperson Atty. James Jimenez announced in his Facebook page, COMELEC Spox, Wednesday, 20 September 2017.

Jimenez explained, "By the time the Senate voted to pass the postponement measure however, the Commission on Elections had already printed 26,189,091 ballots for the Barangay elections and 1,761,764 ballots for the SK polls."

"Thus, for ballot printing alone, the cost so far has come up to at least 83.86 million pesos," Jimenez revealed.

Atty James Jimenez

Congress has passed a bill postponing the October 2017 Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections to May 2018, about a month to go before the actual voting.

This after the House of Representatives adopted Senate Bill 1584 as an amendment to HB No. 6308, since the Senate had adopted the major provisions of the House version.

House Majority Leader Rodolfo Farinas moved for the adoption.  Nobody objected, so the motion was carried.

Farinas informed the body that the Committees on Suffrage & Electoral Reforms and Appropriations, respectively, gave their concurrence to the above.

An adoption of the Senate version forestalls the need of a Bicameral Conference Committee to reconcile minor differences of the bills.

Under the bill, barangay officials would be allowed to continue exercising their functions in a holdover capacity.  It does not grant the President the power to appoint barangay officials.

Now that both chambers have approved the proposal, the enrolled copy of the bill will be transmitted to President Duterte for his signature on Wednesday, October 4, 2017.

Once signed, the law will take effect 15 days after it has been published in the Official Gazette or in a newspaper of general circulation.