SAN JOSE DE BUENAVISTA, Antique – Heavy rains these past few days failed to stop over 3,000 aspirants in the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections (BSKE) in Antique from filing their certificates of candidacy (COCs).
Salud Milagros Villanueva, Antique provincial election supervisor, said 3,665 aspirants had filed their COCs as of Tuesday, Aug. 29.
There were 280 candidates for barangay captain, 2,026 barangay councilors, 224 for Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) chair and 1,135 for SK members in 18 towns of the province.
Villanueva said an unprecedented number of aspirants came to file their COCs on Aug. 28, so other applicants made sure to be early in the succeeding days.
In turn, poll personnel made sure to cater to them even if office time was supposed to end at 5 p.m.
Pamela Azucena, president of the Liga ng Barangay (LnB) Antique chapter, noticed more aspirants in this BSKE.
“The LnB had also been encouraging the youth during our symposia to take on leadership roles in their communities. That must be why there are more aspirants now,” said Azucena, who is running for her third term as village chief of Barangay Idio in Sebaste town.
She appealed to BSKE aspirants to maintain the peaceful and orderly conduct of the election this Oct. 30.
“Let us cooperate with the Comelec to ensure that we will have a fair, peaceful, and orderly election,” Azucena said.
Antique has 404,233 voters for barangay elections and 147,235 registered voters for the Sangguniang Kabataan from its 590 barangays. (PNA)/PN
