Of the 24 barangays in the Cordillera without Sangguniang Kabataan chairperson aspirants, Baguio City tops the list with 18 in relation to the upcoming 2023 barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections on Oct. 30.
Based on the partial list of Commission on Elections-Cordillera, barangays in Baguio City without aspirants for SK chair are: Atok Trail, Aurora Hill North Central, Balsigan, City Camp Proper, Country Club Village, DPS Compound, Engineer’s Hill, Upper General Luna, Harrison-Claudio Carantes, Hillside, Lower Lourdes Subdivision, Upper Magsaysay, Magsaysay Private Road, Mines View Park, Quezon Hill Proper, Upper Quirino-Magsayay, Middle Rock Quarry, and Trancoville.
Atok, Benguet listed two barangays without SK chair aspirants in Cattubo and Pasdong while Kibungan has no SK chair aspirant in Tacadang.
Ifugao listed no aspirant in Pindongan, Kiangan while the other two barangays without SK chair candidates are in Mountain Province are Alab Oriente, Bontoc and Tetep-an Sur, Sagada.
Meanwhile, Bagong Lipunan in Baguio City is the lone barangay without any aspirant for punong barangay in the region, as well as missing one applicant each for barangay kagawad and SK kagawad.
Also, there are 155 barangays in the region without aspirants in the SK membership.
As for unopposed aspirants, the region listed 299 in the punong barangay where Abra tops the list with 187 barangays followed by Benguet (including Baguio City) with 31, Apayao with 27, Kalinga with 20, Ifugao with 17, and Mountain Province with 17.
For the unopposed SK chairperson, Abra listed 169 barangays out of its 303 barangays, Benguet with 92, Mountain Province with 38, Kalinga with 35, Ifugao with 32, and Apayao with 31 for a total of 397 unopposed in the region.
Comelec-Cordillera recorded 444 unopposed barangay kagawads and 397 unopposed SK members in the region. The Comelec said the list of unopposed aspirants and no aspirants in the region are ongoing validation as of press time.
The consolidated number of aspirants in the region reached a total of 2,867 aspirants for punong barangay; 17,951 aspirants for the sangguniang barangay; 2,490 aspirants for the SK chairperson; and 7,885 for SK membership.
The Cordillera has 1,178 barangays of the 75 municipalities, six provinces, and two cities. – Ofelia C. Empian