Bacolod Election Officer Salud Milagros Villanueva yesterday said they are ready to hold the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections if this pushes through this year.

President Benigno Aquino III said the barangay elections should proceed in October as scheduled, following the pronouncement of Commission on Elections chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. that he will endorse to Congress bills postponing the barangay and SK elections as the poll body still has its hands full with the 2013 midterm elections.

Unless there is a very good reason for the postponement, the President said he will remain firm on his stand that barangay elections must be held in its original schedule.

Villanueva said the barangay and SK elections will be conducted manually unlike the midterm elections that was automated.

While during the automated midterm elections the regular precincts in Bacolod were clustered into 311 precincts, the precincts will no longer be clustered this time so there will be 1,693 established precincts during the barangay and SK elections, she said.

Association of Barangay Captains and Bacolod Councilor Mona Dia Jardin recalled that Congress want the barangay elections held in 2015 while Comelec want it held next year.

Senator Francis Escudero had earlier said that the President wants the elections held in 2016.

Jardin said they just learned from a national daily that the barangay elections will push through this year. So they are just waiting for whatever may happen.

But knowing the capacity of the barangay captains, they are ready if the barangay elections will proceed, she said.*CGS

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