Postponing democracy

“IF barangay elections were not held, the power of the people to elect their own leaders and not allow their leaders to just be appointed will be removed away from them. That is a terrible diminution of the power of our people granted to them under a democratic rule.” -former Senator Aquilino “Nene” Pimentel Jr., father of the Local Government Code

THIS administration will be wasting a lot of resources should its minions at Batasan Hill decide to postpone again the barangay and SK elections this October.

Elections Commissioner Luie Guia posted on his Facebook wall that existing laws need to be amendment before the elections could be declared postponed.

“Comelec is aware of what seems to be the declared preference of the political leadership to have the polls reset (or) canceled. It is best however that the decision on the matter be formalized via amendatory legislation the soonest.

“All that the poll body can do now is to slow down a bit in its preparation, but this can only hold temporarily. At a certain point and without the amendatory legislation coming out, it would already be constrained to go full blast,” Guia’s post reads in part.

Guia, however, predicates this statement by reminding citizens that “organizing elections is not a simple task. It is an enormous logistical operation that requires adequate preparation time and commitment of substantial resources.”

As a father to one of Comelec’s election workers in the city, I am appalled by the amount of money this administration will be wasting if it did decide to postpone the elections. As Guia jokingly told me over the weekend: “Comelec father ka nga pala.”

I made my own calculations and came up with P1,406,052. That amount only accounts for the paid man-hours of the election workers manning the satellite registrations in the city alone. It does not include the overtime pays (when they work on Saturdays and Sundays). It does not include the electricity that powers the computers, biometric equipment, the reams of paper and other logistical resources needed in every satellite registration. It does not include the physical hazards these election workers face in the hinterland barangays.

I arrived at that amount by multiplying the number of days (277 to be exact since City Comelec started its satellite registrations since July last year) to the daily average wage of a casual election worker (P423 from the P11,000 monthly salary of a casual worker). Then I multiplied that number to the number of election workers manning each satellite registration (12 election workers).

Guia said via private message that if Congress amends the election law within the next month or two, there won’t be much wastage.

So, timing is key. I just hope that we still have enough thinking legislators in both houses of Congress.

Meanwhile, we, the electorate, wait.

I have seen how the City Comelec has labored and the commitment it has in making sure those voters will be able to choose who will lead them in the most basic unit of political body in the Republic.

As the father of the Local Government Code puts it: “Getting the barangay officials elected by the people of the barangay concerned makes them beholden to their voters. Appointing them, on the other hand, makes them feel they owe a debt of gratitude to the appointing power that they have somehow to repay.”

Postponing the barangay and SK elections is a very dangerous precedent. The next thing you know, you’ll just realize in horror that you have willingly surrendered your liberties to a dictator who has scared you on the pretext that we have been a narco-state in the last “six or seven years.” Pfft.