Art of delaying the inevitable
By postponing them, they can ensure that their favored barangay officials remain in office so they can continuously do their “dirty work” for them.
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By postponing them, they can ensure that their favored barangay officials remain in office so they can continuously do their “dirty work” for them.
On paper, barangay officials serve as the direct link between the national government and local communities, supposedly acting as the primary channel for delivering basic public services to their constituents and enhancing community development programs. While this remains true to a certain extent, the reality is that high-profile politicians and established political dynasties use them for their grassroots networks.
During major campaigns, they routinely mobilize barangay officials to gather people and organize events and rallies, ensuring a visible community turnout. They also pay them to help secure votes by providing crucial ground-level data, identifying political allegiances and delivering bribe money, if necessary.
This is why these politicos, as in the past, are now pooling their resources to make sure the scheduled Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections are pushed further back to 2028. By postponing them, they can ensure that their favored barangay officials remain in office so they can continuously do their “dirty work” for them.
To be honest, there is really no reason why these elections should be delayed further since the Commission on Elections has already spent P8 billion of its P19-billion budget on logistical preparations. In fact, Comelec Chairman George Garcia explicitly warned that any postponement means the billions already spent on automated national printing, ballot boxes, ink and essential procurement will go to waste.
Besides, repeatedly lengthening the terms of local leaders without an election results in a blatant case of disenfranchisement that deprives people of their basic legal, social and political rights to choose their leaders and hold them accountable.
The Supreme Court previously declared a prior BSKE postponement law unconstitutional, recognizing that regular elections are a core democratic right. This does not mean, though, that delays are not allowed. However, they must only be resorted to under extreme public emergencies, and certainly not for political convenience or vague economic excuses.
Unfortunately, proponents of the initiative keep arguing that by postponing the election, the government can instead focus on economic recovery efforts that are currently stifled by quite a number of factors beyond the government’s control. If that were true, though, why does the government keep wasting resources on the impeachment trial and other far too parochial political concerns that only serve these politicians’ vested interests?
Hmm.
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