By Wilnard Bacelonia
MANILA – Senator Imee Marcos rallied her colleagues to support Senate Bill (SB) No. 2816 which seeks to extend the terms of office of barangay (village) and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) officials.
Under the measure, all elected barangay and SK members shall have a six-year term of office and shall be allowed to serve two consecutive terms in the same position.
“Among LGUs (local government units), the barangays and its officials are often deprived of the opportunity to exercise adequate discretion in policy matters, because of the duties and responsibilities passed on to them by both the national government and the bigger LGUs,” Marcos said Tuesday evening in her sponsorship speech.
“So much of their time and energy is devoted to these tasks, and they’re not able to effectively exercise many of their core functions, nor hardly to even initiate their own barangay programs and projects,” she added.
The senator noted that from 1982 to 2022, the average term of barangay officials is just almost five years which is not enough for their duties and responsibilities under the existing law.
“It is evident that three years is grossly inadequate for these officials to comply with their added obligations and at the same time exercise their own discretion in promoting the general welfare of their constituents,” she said.
Under SB 2816, the next regular Barangay and SK elections will be on the second Monday of May 2029 and every six years thereafter, and expected to never coincide with the national and local elections again.
Marcos said that as of Sept. 12, 2024, more than 1,151 barangay, city, municipal, provincial resolutions from all parts of the country, as well as 165 resolutions from the SK chapters nationwide, have endorsed the measure. (PNA)
