Vice presidential aspirant Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has called on Congress to approve a measure that will postpone the barangay elections scheduled in October this year.
Marcos, chairman of the Senate Committee on Local Government, made the call in Malolos, Bulacan where he took his Unity Caravan. He said approval of such a measure can still be done since the 16th Congress still has sessions from May 23 to June 10, 2016.
“Once it has been approved by the House of Representatives, I will adopt it without changing anything and will ask my colleagues to approve it,” he told barangay officials.
There are two bills in the House of Representatives seeking to postpone the 2016 barangay elections.
The Liga ng mga Barangay has been lobbying for a change of the term of office of barangay captains to five years per term and a maximum of three consecutive terms. Currently, they have three years per term with a maximum of three consecutive terms.
He said the postponement is necessary to give time for the next Congress to make a thorough study of the proposal.
“Just like what we did with the Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) when we postponed the October 2014 SK election. Then we worked on the bill on SK Reform Law,” Marcos said.