House of Representatives 鈥� File photo
MANILA, Philippines 鈥� A bill that seeks to extend the term of elected officials under the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) system has been approved by the House of Representatives on third and final reading.
During the plenary session on Monday, House Bill聽(HB) No. 11287 鈥� a set of proposals to amend Republic Act No. 7160 or the Local Government Code of 1991 鈥� was approved after 153 lawmakers voted in the affirmative, four in the negative, and one abstention.
Under the bill, Section 42 of RA No. 7160 will be amended to hold the next barangay and SK elections by the second Monday of May 2029, while elected barangay officials will now serve six-year terms instead of just three years.
The House approved the same bill on second reading last January 2024, before Congress adjourned its session for the election season.
During the plenary debates, Kabataan party-list Rep. Raoul Manuel questioned the intentions of the bill, saying that if the reason for the term extension is the lack of time for barangay officials to do their jobs, then House lawmakers may also be remiss in their duties as they also have three-year terms.
鈥淚鈥檇 like to pose this point from a devil鈥檚 advocate point of view Mr. Speaker, because for example, we in the House of Representatives, we only have three-year terms. So does this mean that we also cannot do anything meaningful, especially with Congress is composed of different members, and our mandate is national?鈥� Manuel said.
Assistant Majority Leader and Oriental Mindoro Rep. Arnan Panaligan, however, noted that the functions of the two sets of officials 鈥� those in the barangay and those in the House 鈥� differ largely.
鈥淲ell Mr. Speaker, I do not agree with that. It seems like we are comparing apples to oranges; we are different in Congress since we have the resources here. We have to admit that there is a different level with officials here in Congress than those in the barangay,鈥� he said.
READ: House bill extending barangay execs term OKd on 2nd reading聽
The proposal to extend the terms of barangay officials received support from no less than House Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, as he and other ranking lawmakers announced last August 2024 that they have proposed setting a fixed term of six years for the barangay officials.
According to Romualdez, this is meant to ensure continuity and projects and to protect barangay officials from politicking.
At the Senate, Romualdez鈥檚 cousin, Senator Imee Marcos, also filed a bill seeking to extend the term of barangay officials, as the short terms supposedly hinder community leaders from 鈥渇ormulating, developing, and implementing鈥� their own policies and projects.
Like Romualdez鈥檚 proposal, the term of barangay officials will also be set to six years.
However, the Senate-approved proposal seeks to extend the term of barangay officials to four year terms instead.
READ:
Senate Bill No. 2816 was approved by senators with 22 affirmative votes, zero negative votes, and zero abstentions during the regular plenary session.
Pursuant to the bill, the next regular barangay and SK elections shall be held on the first Monday of October 2027 and every four years thereafter. /das