MANILA, Philippines – The House of Representatives is keen on postponing the 2015 Sangguniang Kabataan (youth council) elections once more, choosing to finalize and pass SK reforms first.

On Tuesday, October 28, the House committee on suffrage and electoral reforms approved the consolidated version of two substitute bills seeking to postpone the SK polls, currently scheduled for February 21, 2015.

The new proposed date for the SK polls is in October 2016, in sync with the next barangay (village) elections. Congressmen said this would give the chamber more time to formulate SK reforms.

The SK elections were supposed to take place exactly a year ago, on October 28, 2013, but President Benigno Aquino III signed Republic Act 10632 postponing the polls to between October 2014 and February 2015 to allow Congress to legislate reforms in the SK system.

Representative Mariano Piamonte Jr of A Teacher said that more than a dozen SK reform bills have been filed in Congress. However, both the Senate and the House of Representatives failed to meet its self-imposed October 31 deadline to pass an SK reform law.

“The pre-condition of the postponement in the present law is that reforms should first be instituted [before holding SK elections]. But it did not happen,” Piamonte said. (READ: Why the Sangguniang Kabataan needs an overhaul)

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) had also pushed for another SK polls postponement, saying that Comelec needs to focus on its preparations for the May 2016 national elections.

“Many congressmen whom I talked to share the sentiment na pag-isahin na lang ang gastos (combine the expenses) for the barangay and SK polls [on October 2016],” Piamonte said.

He clarified, however, that the new postponement does not mean the passage of SK reforms would be delayed as well. (READ: Greater accountability, SK autonomy in reform bill)

“We’ll try to fast-track the SK reforms, so that there would be no other reason to postpone the elections further. We’ll try to ensure that before October 2016, changes to the SK system have already been made,” he said.

The postponement bills in the consolidated version were House Bill 5006 of Davao del Norte Representative Anthony del Rosario and House Bill 5043 of Baguio City Representative Nicasio Aliping and Pangasinan Representative Marlyn Primicias Agabas.

Despite the status of SK reform legislation in Congress, Comelec has already conducted voter’s registration for 15-to-17-year-old Filipinos and set the calendar of activities leading to the February 2015 SK polls.

‘Disappointing’

Rafaela David, chairperson of Akbayan Youth, expressed her disappointment over the House committee’s decision.

“We are afraid that it sends the wrong message that SK elections are trivial, that it is a lower form of political participation compared to other electoral engagements,” David said.

“It turns out that the SK elections can easily be deferred, because of budgetary or practical concerns,” she added.

She said barangays are getting confused already with the unclear status of SK reform legislation and elections.

Nevertheless, she was glad to hear the committee members’ pronouncements that centered on much-needed reforms as the reason behind the postponement.

“If they could give us a guarantee that SK reforms would finally be passed, in a way, it would lessen our disappoinment.” – Rappler.com