{"id":95848,"date":"2017-03-29T01:31:31","date_gmt":"2017-03-29T05:31:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=95848"},"modified":"2017-03-29T01:31:31","modified_gmt":"2017-03-29T05:31:31","slug":"bottom-line-of-barangay-elections-is-democracy-lacson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/03\/29\/bottom-line-of-barangay-elections-is-democracy-lacson\/","title":{"rendered":"Bottom line of barangay elections is democracy\u2014Lacson"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_85581\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-85581\" style=\"width: 960px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/14291772_1174409495962381_4772260492257102243_n.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-85581\" src=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/14291772_1174409495962381_4772260492257102243_n.jpg\" alt=\"Whether barangay (village) officials are involved in illegal drugs or not, Sen. Panfilo Lacson on Tuesday said that the bottom line of having an election is democracy.  (Photo: Senator Ping Lacson\/ Facebook)\" width=\"960\" height=\"960\" srcset=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/14291772_1174409495962381_4772260492257102243_n.jpg 960w, https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/14291772_1174409495962381_4772260492257102243_n-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/14291772_1174409495962381_4772260492257102243_n-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/14291772_1174409495962381_4772260492257102243_n-768x768.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-85581\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Whether barangay (village) officials are involved in illegal drugs or not, Sen. Panfilo Lacson on Tuesday said that the bottom line of having an election is democracy. (Photo: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SenatorPingLacson\/photos\/a.825189467551054.1073741827.824886400914694\/1174409495962381\/?type=1&amp;amp;theater\">Senator Ping Lacson\/ Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>MANILA\u2014Whether barangay (village) officials are involved in illegal drugs or not, Sen. Panfilo Lacson on Tuesday said that the bottom line of having an election is democracy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe bottom line is democracy. This is the most basic political unit of our country so they should allow the people to choose their officials,\u201d Lacson told reporters in an interview.<\/p>\n<p>He made this statement following plans of Pres. Rodrigo Duterte to postpone scheduled barangay elections this October and replace all barangay officials with appointees as many of them are said to be involved in the illegal drug trade.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEven if the ones elected are useless, that is the essence of democracy, that they will be judged by people and not just one person,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>Lacson also pointed out that the elections have been postponed several times.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat&#8217;s why it&#8217;s called barangay elections, people should be allowed to choose their village chiefs. This has been postponed several times,\u201d Lacson said.<\/p>\n<p>The senator said that there are \u201cconsequences\u201d to postponing it again.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are consequences. Even if we say his (Pres. Duterte\u2019s) intentions are honest because he said 40 percent of barangay officials are linked to drugs, we cannot do away with removing the process of democracy,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRight now, I am inclined to oppose the move to just appoint the barangay officials,\u201d he further said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MANILA\u2014Whether barangay (village) officials are involved in illegal drugs or not, Sen. Panfilo Lacson on Tuesday said that the bottom &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":85581,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1482,1145,16,95],"tags":[11460,15770],"class_list":["post-95848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","tag-barangay-elections","tag-sen-panfilo-lacson","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95848\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}