The Congress has ratified the bicameral conference committee report deferring the Sangguniang Kabataan elections scheduled in October this year to a later date to be determined by the Commission on Elections (Comelec).
The bill will now be sent to Malacañang for the President's approval.
With the measure only a few steps to becoming a law, the Comelec said it has cancelled the production of materials needed for the SK polls.
The bicameral conference committee report states that the new date of the SK polls would be set to a new date “to be determined by the Comelec between October 28, 2014 and February 23, 2015.”
The members of the bicameral conference commitee panel included Representatives Fredenil Castro of the NUP, Joselito Mendoza, Francis Gerald Abaya; Maria Leonor Gerona-Robredo, Edgar Erice; Winston Castelo; Anthony del Rosario and Terry Ridon on the part of the House of Representatives; and Senators Aquilino Pimentel III, Paolo Benigno Aquino IV, Ferdinand Marcos Jr and Joseph Victor Ejercito on the part of the Senate.
The report tasked the Comelec and the Department of Interior and Local Government to craft the necessary implementing rules and regulations (IRR) for the measure.
The members of the bicameral committee panel put in place a provision stating that there will be no holdover of existing positions held by the SK officials, with the positions to remain open until the elections take place.
The terms of all sitting SK officials’ terms will expire at noon of November 30, 2013.
“All Sangguniang Kabataan officials who are ex-officio members of the sangguniang bayan, sangguniang panglunsod or sangguniang panlalawigan as the case may be shall not continue to serve as such members in sangguniang concerned after the expiration of their term as Sangguniang Kabataan officials,” the bicameral conference committee report stated.
On the use of SK funds, the bicameral conference committee panel placed a provision that "until the new set of officials have been duly elected and qualified, the Sangguniang Barangay shall use the SK fund for youth development programs."
Earlier, Representatives Magnolia Rosa Antonino-Nadres (4th district, Nueva Ecija) and Magtanggol Gunigundo (2nd district, Valenzuela City), who are both NUP members, along with Representatives Edgar Erice (2nd district, Caloocan City), Mel Senen Sarmiento (1st district, Western Samar), and Wilson Castelo (QC, 2nd district) filed separate measures seeking the postponement of the SK and barangay polls scheduled on the last Monday of October this year.