ILOILO CITY - - The Commission on Elections (Comelec) in Western Visayas continues with its preparation for the 2017 barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections amid a possible postponement sought by the Senate and the House of Representatives.
Lawyer Dennis Ausan, Comelec regional director for Region 6, said Tuesday afternoon that President Rodrigo Duterte is yet to sign into law the proposed postponement.
Ausan said what they are doing is in compliance with Republic Act 10923, which mandates the holding of barangay and SK elections on October 23.
Some of their activities, however, were moved in consideration of proposed postponement.
He said the election period will be from October 1 to 30 instead of September 23 until October 30. The filing of the certificate of candidacy (COC), meanwhile, is scheduled on October 5 to 11.
The training for deputized teachers, which was supposedly this week, was also postponed. Ausan said they are waiting for guidance from their central office to reschedule the training.
A command conference together with the Philippine National Police (PNP), Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and all other enforcement agencies was conducted on Monday. Participants were provided with the resolutions regarding checkpoints, gun ban and other prohibited acts.
Currently, the region has roughly 4.4 million voters, about 1.8 million of them eligible to vote in the SK elections.
The House of Representatives and the Senate on final reading approved House Bill No.6308 and Senate Bill No. 1584, respectively, postponing the Barangay and SK elections. The House adopted on Monday the Senate’s version that the elections will be postponed to Monday of May 2018. (PNA)
