ILOILO City – The special Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) election ordered by the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) to fill up vacant youth council posts won’t be synchronized.
It will be conducted depending on the convenient dates chosen by the concerned barangay SKs, according to Atty. Ferdinand Panes, DILG-Iloilo City director.
DILG Memorandum Circular No. 2018-212 issued on Dec. 20. 2018 ordered the conduct of special SK elections.
SK chairpersons must hold the polls within 30 days from receipt of the DILG circular.
According to Panes, there were around 300 SK vacancies in this city.
DILG-Iloilo City ordered barangay SK chairpersons to submit their chosen schedules for the special election.
The schedules must be made public by posting notices at least five days prior to the election, said Panes.
“Ang madumala sini SK chairmen. Simplified election lang, daw election sa liga nga may board of election supervisors headed by the DILG,” said Panes.
The composition of the board of election supervisors is – aside from the DILG – the Commission on Elections and a non-governmental organization or civil society organization.
Around 75 barangays in this city have SKs with incomplete sets of officials – either there’s a lack of chairman or councilors.
The SK election was held on May 14, 2018 but resulted in some barangays having only an elected SK chairman with no or incomplete council members, or SK council with members but no chairman.
Also, said Panes, many of those who were elected eventually resigned either because they were still going to school or have jobs already.
“You have to understand. If you are not the SK chairman you have no benefits. Wala man sila honorarium so indi mo man na mapilit,” said Panes.
According to DILG Region 6, 22 barangays in Western Visayas does not have SK chairpersons.
At 18 barangays, Iloilo province had the highest number of villages without SK chairpersons.
Negros Occidental and Iloilo City had two villages each without SK heads.
Aside from the unfilled seats for SK chairpersons, 273 villages in the region were also without SK members – Iloilo province, 207 villages; Negros Occidental, 54; Iloilo City, nine; Guimaras, two; and one in Capiz province.
The town of Cabatuan in Iloilo province had 29 villages without SK members.
There were also 941 villages in the region with incomplete SK councils. Most of these barangays were in Iloilo province, with 711; Negros Occidental, 68; Iloilo City, 67; Capiz, 54; Guimaras, 21; Aklan, 12; and Bacolod City, eight./PN
