By Dominic B. dela Cruz
Staff reporter
Laoag City—The city new local government operations officer Janet Duarte is eyeing the holding of additional special Sangguniang Kabataan elections for the city’s 37 barangays.
Ms. Duarte said the said barangays have incomplete number of elected SK officials, thus the special elections.
The planned special election is based on a Dept. of Interior and Local Government Memorandum Circular No. 2018-212 dated December 20, 2018, which states the need to complete the set of SK officials in all the barangays within 30 days upon issuance.
However, with 237 barangays having incomplete SK officials, the 30-day period does not apply to the city.
A supplemental memorandum was issued wherein it states that the city of Laoag can conduct special SK elections until March 31, 2019.
Record shows that the city DILG started conducting special elections on January 19 and 20, 2019 for 10 Barangays.
Ms. Duarte expressed hopes that all the 37 barangays will conduct special elections before the March 31, 2019 deadline.
The city’s DILG office along with the local Commission on Elections office and non-government organizations conduct the special elections.
The special elections use secret ballots, as stated by DILG guidelines. Only those aged 15-30 can vote while candidates should be 18-24 years old only.
Candidates should also not be related to any elected official within the second degree of consanguinity.
“So far awan ngamin benefits dagiti SK officials except the SK chairman ket isu iti maysa a makita mi a rason no apay awan unay aginteresado nga agbalin nga opisyales iti Sangguniang Kabataan. Maysa pay ket agub-ubran ken estudyante paylaeng dagiti dadduma,” Ms. Duarte said.
However, she stressed that there are still youth who are very active “Para iti pagsayaatan dagiti agtutubo uray awan benefits a maawat da”.