House OKs postponement of barangay, SK polls

MANILA, Philippines — The House of Representatives approved on second reading yesterday the consolidated measure that will postpone the holding of barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) polls on Dec. 5 this year to the first week of December 2023, effectively extending the terms of the officials by another year.

In a hybrid session, administration lawmakers unanimously approved the consolidated House Bill 4673, a consolidation of 43 separate bills authored by at least 82 House members, about three months before the originally scheduled political exercise.

House Majority Leader Manuel Jose Dalipe said the House leadership, led by Speaker Martin Romualdez, is determined to approve the bill by Oct. 1 and have it signed into law by President Marcos before the scheduled barangay and SK elections on Dec. 5.

Comelec Chairman George Garcia told lawmakers earlier that holding the elections either in May or December 2023 would make election expenditures balloon from the current allocation of P8 billion to P18 billion.

Poll watchdogs have also opposed the postponement, pointing out that others must be given a chance to serve, and some SK officials are already overaged for their posts.

Questions have also been raised on why lawmakers are so eager to please barangay officials, who are reportedly lobbying for another extension of their term.

Dalipe said the Senate has likewise made a clear commitment that they would pass their counterpart measure to allow the postponement of the barangay elections.

Three Senate committees have endorsed the postponement, contained in Senate Bill 1306, which was a consolidation of three measures calling for the same.

Sen. Imee Marcos, chair of the committee on electoral reform, was expected to sponsor the bill on the floor last night but session remained suspended as of press time.

The two other panels endorsing the postponement are the committees on local governments and finance, chaired by Senators JV Ejercito and Sonny Angara, respectively.

Subsequent synchronized barangay and SK elections were also set on the first Monday of 2026 and every three years thereafter.

Once passed into law, incumbent barangay and SK officials will retain their position on hold over capacity “unless sooner removed or suspended for cause.”

Dalipe said the Speaker supports the proposal because this would allow the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and local government units to better prepare for clean and orderly barangay polls, and give government ample time to apply corrective adjustments to the honoraria of poll workers.

“We need to pass this law ASAP because time is of the essence. The barangay and SK elections is just a few months away so we are hoping that we can approve this in the House on or before Oct. 1,” he said.

The original October 2016 barangay and SK polls were postponed to October 2017. From there, it was postponed to May 2018, which was again reset to December 2022.

Last August, 14 members of the House committee on suffrage and electoral reforms – with the exception of Kabataan party-list Rep. Raoul Manuel – voted to approve the postponement of the barangay and SK elections to 2023.

The substitute bill will be sent to the House appropriations committee, headed by Rep. Zaldy Co of Ako Bicol party-list, for purposes of allocating funds for the political exercise, which has been postponed ostensibly to save funds to be used for the pandemic response. – Paolo Romero