MANILA — More than 17,000 Certificates of Candidacy (COCs) have been filed by aspirants for the May 14 Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) on the first day of the filing period on Saturday, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) reported on Sunday.
Based on a report submitted by 339 cities/municipalities, as of Saturday, the total number of COCs filed for the forthcoming village and youth polls is 17,481.
For the barangay elections, the COCs filed is 13,982, with 9,856 male aspirants and 4,126 female aspirants.
Of the number, those seeking barangay chairman post are 1,560 (male) and 426 (female). For barangay kagawad, 8,296 are male while 3,700 are female.
For the SK elections, there were 845 candidates who filed their COCs for SK chairman.
For SK kagawad, male candidates are 1,514 while female aspirants totaled to 1,140.
The period for the filing of COCs will run until April 20.
Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez said that the total number of barangays in the country is 42,041, as of February 13.
The total number of voters is 78,017,088 — 57,384,446 for barangay while 20,632,642 for SK elections.
The number of polling precincts is 376,420.
Each precinct will be manned by three Board of Election Tellers (BETs) or teachers.
The May 14 polls will be manual, as voters will have to right down the names of the candidates, one Punong Barangay and seven Members of the Sangguniang Barangay.
For youth voters, they will be electing one Chairperson and seven Members of the SK for every barangay. (Ferdinand Patinio/PNA)