CITY OF SAN FERNANDO - Incumbent barangay officials are threatened to be charged with an election offense if they 'wilfully' refuse to comply with the Commission on Elections' (Comelec) call to augment certain percentage of their budget to cover expenses of the upcoming elections.
Lawyer Lydia Pangilinan, Comelec provincial election supervisor in a recent meeting with the barangay officials, urged them to settle their respective share on the date specified by the commission to avoid facing inconveniences.
The concerned officials are given up to October 18 to comply with the Comelec's initiative asking for augmentation to support the conduct of the elections.
"The amount will be charged on the Sangguniang Kabataan funds," she said.
Last Thursday, President Benigno Aquino III signed into law an act postponing SK elections originally scheduled on Oct. 28 to allow Congress to reform the youth council.
Earlier, Pangilinan disclosed that only P1.17 -billion has been allocated by the government for the conduct of 2013 barangay elections.
This accordingly is not enough to cover the expenses of barangay elections in the country covering more than 40,000 barangays.
The Comelec earlier stated that they need a total of P3.45 billion for the barangay elections.
It can be recalled, Comelec passed Resolution No.9739 mandating all local government units to set aside P10,000 from each clustered precinct to help them defray election expenses.
Every barangay is required to set aside not less than P10,000 for the election but not more than 10 percent of the available general fund.
Section 50 of the Omnibus Election Code supported the Comelec initiative on augmentaion of funds.
It was furthered explained that local government units are obligated to appropriate funds to defray necessary and reasonable expenses of the members of the board of election tellers, board of canvassers and the printing of election forms and procurement of other election paraphernalia and the installation of polling booths.
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