ONE MORE YEAR. Antique Liga ng mga Barangay (LnB) convenes for a meeting in the Municipality of Sebaste on Sept. 13, 2022. LnB president Pamela Socorro Azucena on Wednesday (Sept. 21) said their group support the postponement of the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections to next year so they could still realize their priority programs and projects. (Photo courtesy of Antique LnB)
SAN JOSE DE BUENAVISTA, Antique – Barangay captains from the 590 villages in Antique province support the move of the House of Representatives to postpone the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections.
Liga ng mga Barangay (LnB) president Pamela Socorro Azucena, in an interview Wednesday, said their group still has several stalled projects due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) surge.
“Due to Covid-19, we had to realign some of our budget for our supposed priority projects in order to respond to the emergency health needs of the people,” she said.
She said that in Barangay Idio, Sebaste where she is the barangay captain, they were supposed to purchase land to construct a wet market in 2020 but the plan was set aside with the onset of the pandemic.
“Our barangay is a convergence area of people considering that the only public high school is located there,” she said.
Azucena said that with the postponement of the barangay and SK elections, she is hopeful that they could again raise the needed PHP400,000 as their counterpart fund with that of the municipality for the purchase of a lot for the wet market to make it accessible to their constituents.
“Barangay captains, as well as the SKs, also feel that it is not yet the right time to again hold another election this year with the holding of the national and local elections only last May 9,” she said.
Azucena added that besides that it could be expensive on their part, there are still estranged relationships that need to be mended as a result of the May 9 elections.
Congress on Tuesday approved on the third and final reading House Bill 4673 postponing the December 2022 barangay and SK elections for one year. (PNA)
