Marcos wants to postpone SK polls to 2014

MANILA - Senator Bongbong Marcos said he will recommend the postponement of the Sangguniang Kabataan elections until next year to give way to various reforms in the SK.

Marcos, head of the Senate Committee on Local Government, announced this to members of the media after a committee hearing.

The SK federation, National Youth Commission, League of Cities of the Philippines and the League of Provinces of the Philippines gave their support to Marcos' Senate Bill 1186.

The bill seeks the postponement of the SK elections, after criticisms that the current SK is flawed, ineffective and a training ground of corruption.

Marcos said he has the support of the national government.

"Wala sa pinilang bill ang timetable pero as committee ammendment dagdagan ng isang taon...or earlier depending on the agreement of new reforms," he said.

"Hindi natin mamadaliin ito dahil malaking bahagi ng lipunan ay kabataan."

National Youth Commission Leon Flores said it would be better to postpone the election than to have another crop of SK officers be exposed to such an ineffective system.

League of Cities President and former Kabataang Barangay officer Mayor Herbert Bautista also threw his support for the proposal, saying that the current SK is in need of dire reforms.

The SK elections are slated to happen this October, synchronized with the barangay elections.

However, as calls for its postponement gains ground, Marcos said that they would have to talk more about the practicality of holding a separate election for SK, as this would certainly entail additional costs.

He said he will expedite the passage of the bill before Senate breaks by the end of September to give time for Comelec to adjust.

Comelec chairman Sixto Brillantes earlier called for the postponement for the SK elections, saying that it would mean a savings of 50-60 million pesos which would go directly to the salary of the BET's.

Brillantes said the total budget of the synchronized elections is pegged at 3.4 billion pesos, of which 2.3 billion pesos will be sourced from the savings of the Commission.

Meanwhile the Senate finance committee this morning approved Comelec's budget of 2.8 billion pesos for 2014, down from this year's 8.4billion pesos