Why are the coming barangay and SK polls distinctly important?

One and all might have observed that the Commission on Elections seemingly gets stricter and more focused on the preparations for the October 30, 2023 village and youth elections, compared to the manner and intensity of the poll body's supervision of even the last presidential polls in 2022. This is because the barangay and SK polls had been postponed too many times and the incumbent had overstayed far too long. Many of them have outlived their relevance. New blood must be infused and new hopes must be brought in.

The election shall elect the chief executive of the barangay, and seven of eight members of the Sangguniang Barangay, or barangay council, in 42,027 barangays throughout the country. If youth is indeed still the hope of our motherland, then I see the SK polls as more significant. The new generations of leaders are being trained to lead the villages so that they can take over the barangay from their ageing elders. Elections for the reformed Sangguniang Kabataan or SK gives opportunity to the millennials and the Gen Z to make an impact in their communities. The youth shall elect among themselves an SK chairperson, who will automatically serve as an ex officio member of the Sangguniang Barangay, and seven SK councilors in each barangay.

The coming elections had been postponed many times to the extent that the incumbent barangay and SK officials have become anachronistic and irrelevant. They have been used and manipulated by town mayors, congressmen and governors in order to advance partisan political agenda, instead of their original purpose which is to be free from partisanship and serve as genuine village and youth leaders. Many if not most of the SK boys and girls had been taught how to commit falsification of public documents in the liquidation of public funds and also trained by traditional politicians on the schemes and machinations of corruption through malversation of public funds.

The elders who are mostly being controlled by the mayors, governors and congressmen are the ones corrupting the minds of the youth. Thus, Comelec has a huge responsibility to safeguard the integrity of the coming elections so that the truly deserving should have a chance against the candidates of the trapos. Most of the incumbents are tainted by traditional and transactional politics. Their series of term extensions extended to them have made them callous and spoiled and many of them have forgotten their true mandate to serve the people without any partisan consideration. Most of the distribution of ayuda and even the DSWD's 4 Ps had been corrupted by barangay officials in order to advance their own political ambitions, and to follow blindly the dictates of the trapo mayors, governors and congressmen.

Having stayed too long in office, the village chiefs and also the SK officials have become too politicized. We should recall that the November 2016 barangay and SK elections were postponed to May 2018 then again rescheduled to May 2020, and supposedly every three years after that. But then again, on September 30, 2019, the Senate pushed a bill postponing the date of the village and SK elections to December 5, 2022. Then the Lower House followed suit on November 4, 2019. Since the incumbent barangay and SK officials are mostly lackeys, underlings and blind followers of the congressmen, the politicians in both Houses pursued their own partisan agenda by postponing the polls, thereby perpetuating their cronies.

The two bills were consolidated and passed into law, which was signed by then President Rodrigo Duterte on December 3, 2019. On October 10, 2022, President BBM signed RA  11935 which moved the date of barangay elections to the last Monday of October 2023. A week later, election lawyer Romulo Macalintal filed a petition with a Supreme Court a petition challenging the constitutionality of the law. He argued that Congress has no power to postpone the barangay elections and to extend the term of village officials, and it can only fix the term through a law. Macalintal won. The highest court struck down RA 11935, the law postponing the election, as unconstitutional, declaring that "the law unconstitutionally exceeds the bounds of the Congress’ power to legislate."

The Filipinos should know that the High Court allowed the upcoming elections to proceed, but stressed that the currently-serving officials' terms to have ended in December 31, 2022 as per RA 11462, which had been repealed by RA 11935. The court also ruled that the winning officials on October 30 this year, will serve only until 2025, with barangay elections being held on that year, and every three years thereafter.

It is always the Supreme Court that cleans up the mess always made by the politicians in Congress and the Office of the President. And rightly so.