"Sec. 2219½. In each barrio there shall be organized a barrio council which shall be composed of a barrio lieutenant, and such number of deputy barrio lieutenants as there are sitios within the barrio, a councilman for livelihood, a councilman for education, and a councilman for health. They shall be elected at a meeting to be attended by at least one-half of all the residents of the barrio who are qualified voters.1awp++i1 The election shall take place annually on the third Tuesday of January. The councilor of the barrio shall convoke and preside over the meeting. He shall appoint a board of inspectors and canvassers to conduct the election. The manner of election may be by open or secret ballot as one-half of the voters attending the election meeting may decide. Those who obtain the highest number of votes for the position for which they are candidates shall be declared elected and shall assume office immediately.
"Every bona fide resident of the barrio of twenty-one years of age or over is eligible to vote in the election, provided he has been a resident of the barrio at least six months prior to the election.
"A voter who may not be able to attend the meeting may appoint a proxy in writing, who may cast his vote in his stead: Provided, However, That such proxy is also an eligible voter of the barrio in which the absentee voter is qualified to vote. The written authority granted to the proxy must be signed by the voter and by two witnesses who are eligible voters of the barrio, or if the voter is unable to write, the ones who will be present to vouch for the authority granted the proxy to vote for him at the barrio meeting held for the election of the barrio councilmen.
"Any qualified voter of the barrio of not less than twenty-five years of age and who may have the necessary training, experience and fitness for the position to which he may be elected regardless of political affiliation, is qualified to run for a seat in the barrio council.
"The members of the barrio council shall hold office for one year or until their successors are duly elected and qualified. But in no case can he be re-elected for more than four consecutive terms, unless two years have elapsed from the expiration of his last term, in which case he shall again be eligible for election to any barrio office. They shall not receive any compensation or emolument of any kind. The municipal, provincial or national seats of government or for time spent during working days on legitimate barrio business, shall be reimbursed in a manner to be decided upon by the qualified voters of the barrio in a barrio meeting wherein at least three-fourths of the qualified voters are in attendance, or this matter may be entrusted to the council itself by a vote of three-fourths of the voters in attendance in the aforesaid barrio meeting.
"The barrio council shall have the power to promulgate resolutions not inconsistent with law or ordinances of the municipal council, and subject to the approval of the latter, which shall be operative within the barrio. The council shall be responsible for the planning, budgeting and spending of funds belonging to the barrio treasury and shall have the following duties and powers:
"(a) To represent the barrio or portion of barrio where it is located, in cases in which such representation is not incompatible with the personality of the municipal council; (b) to hold a regular session once a month; (c) to make their own rules of procedure which shall be approved by the councilor of the place before they take said councilor, such suggestion or recommendations as they may see fit for improvements in their place or for the welfare of the inhabitants thereof; (e) to provide for the publication by town crier or such other means as they see fit, of new laws and municipal ordinances they may consider as important; (f) to organize at least three times a year civil lectures tending to generalize information concerning the duties and rights of citizenship; and (g) to offer to the Government the cooperation necessary locally for the success of measure of general interest. The barrio councilmen may hold their sessions in the public school building of the place during hours when there are no classes, or in any house or lot in the barrio the provisional or permanent use of which may be granted to them for said purpose free of charge; and shall elect from among their number a secretary who shall prepare short minutes of the proceedings of the council and draft the recommendations or suggestions to be submitted by the same to the municipal council, in either the official languages of the country or in the local dialect."
Approved: June 10, 1955.
