Postponing barangay polls is strike 3 against grassroots democracy
Let us not make the already twice-postponed October 2016 barangay elections the most aborted in history.
As it stands now, the COMELEC is ready, the communities are ready, the candidates are ready, the country is ready, for the scheduled May 14 elections. Only some congressmen are not.
It is too late to pull the plug at this stage—when it’s all systems go for the COMELEC, there are no security threats which warrant a cancellation, taxpayers’ money has been spent, and after both houses of Congress had made two solemn pledges in the past that the postponement law they had passed will be the last.
The power to hold office is founded on the principle that rulers must have the explicit mandate from the people, and when it expires, must be renewed by the people through an election.
Postponing the election is term extension granted by a vote of Congress and not of the people. If we reset again the elections this May, it is a strike three against grassroots democracy.
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SENATE BILLS/AUTHORED LAWS:
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21 JUL 2016: Senate Bill No. 800: Barangay Officials and Volunteer Workers Social Security Benefits Act of 2016
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