Even as Malacañang and Congress are set to meet on the proposal to postpone the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections scheduled for October this year, a new idea promises to break the current impasse over the matter and save the government billions of pesos.

Former Justice Secretary Alberto Agra, who now heads the private think-tank Forensic Law and Policy Strategies Inc. (Forensic Solution), said President Aquino could actually call on Congress to pass a law that would provide for the appointment, rather than the election, of barangay officials.

Agra pointed out in a new policy paper titled “Appointive Barangay and SK Officials and SK Abolition, Possible” that the Constitution is silent on whether barangay executives – and other local officials for that matter – are to be elected or appointed to office.

He said the Charter has left it to Congress, which has been mandated to enact a Local Government Code, to decide on how public officials holding local posts are to be chosen.