Midanaotoday.com | 66 BSKE aspirants in Oro unopposed
By: URIEL QUILINGUING
Cagayan de Oro City – Sixty-six candidates in today’s Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (BSKE) in this city have no opponents, but they must undergo the electoral process, a Commission on Elections (Comelec) official said Saturday, October 28.
Lawyer Ramil Acol, city election officer for District 2, said aspirants for elective posts who are unopposed still need at least a vote, the vote/s must be canvassed, and the candidate is duly proclaimed winner.
“Their votes would still be counted, canvassed, and then proclaimed (winner),” said Acol and that the provisions of the Local Government Code would apply for the unfilled positions in the barangay government. These vacant posts would either be filled by appointment by the local chief executive, upon recommendation of the barangay council or SK or by special elections.
The BSKE is intended to fill up positions for a punong barangay (village chairperson) and seven members of the Sangguniang Barangay (village council), a chairperson for the SK (youth council) and seven members of the SK. They shall become the elective leaders of the barangay government.
Of the 66 unopposed aspirants in this city, 12 are candidates for punong barangay, eight for SK chairperson, and 46 for SK members.
In District 1, Barangay Taglimao has only one candidate for punong barangay, one for SK chairperson and seven SK members.
In District 2, Barangay 1 only has one candidate each for PB and SK chairperson, and seven for SK members; Barangay 2 has only two candidates for SK members; Barangay 3 has only one candidate each for PB, SK chairperson, and SK member, while Barangay 4 has one candidate for PB and none for SK chairperson and SK members.
In Barangay 10, only one each for PB and SK chairperson and seven for SK members filed their certificates of candidacy.
There is also one candidate each for PB and SK chairperson in Barangay 16 and only six are seeking for SK membership seats. In Barangay 20, all aspirants for PB, SK chairperson, and seven for SK members need only one vote each to secure their mandates.
There is one candidate each for PB and SK chairperson, and only two are seeking for seven seats for village youth council in Barangay 38, while in Barangay 40 there is one each for PB and SK chairperson and seven for SK members.
In Barangay Nazareth, there is only one candidate for punong barangay, though 11 are seeking for the seven seats in the barangay council. There are two 8-member slates for the youth council.
But while the slates for candidates in some numbered barangays are incomplete, there are barangays where more than two are contesting for a seat in the barangay and youth councils such as Balubal, Bayabas, Consolacion, and Cugman.
In Bayabas, there are 77 candidates: Six are eyeing to become the village chief, 39 for the seven seats in the village council, four for SK chairperson, and 28 for the seven-member youth council. Consolacion has 76 aspirants, Balubal and Cugman with 72 hopefuls each.
In contrast, in Carmen, the city’s biggest barangay in terms of population, land area, and income, only two are locking horns for the village chieftainship and three for youth council’s top post. There are 43 others who wish to be the barangay and youth councils.
In a forum organized by the Central Student Government of Xavier University-Ateneo de Cagayan on October 25-26, only 27 of the 132 of the candidates for the city’s 80 barangays responded and participated in discussions of current and pressing issues of public concern.
XU’s Student Social Involvement and Advocacy Program Director Nestor Banuag Jr., who also chairs the National Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) Cagayan de Oro, said there are no more active youth leaders in the city’s numbered barangays.
Banuag said most of the buildings in numbered or urban barangays (Barangays 1 to 30) are utilized for commercial purposes and only a few are still residential.
He said the non-appearance of most candidates for SK chairperson the forum was primarily due to conflicts of schedules with school classes and campaign sorties in their respective villages that were set earlier.
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