BINALONAN–The mayors’ house is divided.

Half of the 1,500 municipal mayors in the country favor pushing through with the scheduled Oct. 29 barangay election, according to the president of League of Municipalities of the Philippines (LMP).

This town’s mayor, Ramon Guico, Jr., president of the influential LMP, said those who support the scheduled elections are mostly neophyte mayors who claim that most of the incumbent barangay chairmen are not their political allies.

The re-elected mayors, on the other hand, said they favor the proposal to postpone the polls next year for financial considerations.

Guico admitted that the current political set up obliges the mayors to give monetary support to the candidates who backed them up during the May election.

      “They say it’s okay if they will support only one candidate or one set of aspirants. But the re-elected or the veteran mayors have many allies aspiring to get elected also as barangay captain whom they are bound to support,” Guico said.

Guico said on the average there are two or more aspirants for the barangay chairman position in one area, with each one having a corresponding set of kagawads.

The LMP president also noted that the barangay election is even hotter because it is “too close” with relatives fighting over the same position.

SCRAP SK

Meanwhile, Guico said there is a common consensus among mayors to abolish the Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) citing the perennial absences of those elected to the posts.

“They do not have independence in making their decisions and usually, it’s always the dictate of their parents,” Guico said.

SK officials, he said, are within school age and could not really attend to their public service duties given that they are concentrating on their studies.#

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