The current barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan officials are serving for only two years instead of three because of repeated extensions of the terms of BSK officials through repeated postponements of the BSK elections since the presidency of Rodrigo Duterte.
Thanking and ingratiating themselves to their grassroots political leaders by extending the terms of BSK officials had become a bad habit among lawmakers in previous Congresses.
In a ruling in June 2023 and affirmed in the same year, the Supreme Court finally put a stop to the BSKE postponements and the resulting term extensions rewarded by Congress and Malacañang to their political leaders. The SC declared as unconstitutional Republic Act 11935, which reset the BSKE from Dec. 5, 2022 to October 2023.
The SC stressed that the right to vote requires the holding of genuine periodic elections, held at intervals that “are not unduly long.” This is meant to ensure “that the authority of government continues to be based on the free expression of the will of electors,” the SC said.
If lawmakers could be impeached, the habitual proponents of BSKE postponements should have been ousted through impeachment and perpetually barred from public office many years ago for culpable violation of the Constitution.
For practical purposes, the Supreme Court allowed the BSKE to be held in October 2023, but with the terms of those who would be elected to follow what was stipulated in RA 9164 – meaning the term ends after the BSKE in October this year.
This is what lawmakers want to change again, with yet another postponement of the BSKE to November next year. They also want BSK officials to have a four-year term – longer than the terms of members of Congress and local government executives. Why? Any excuse can be cooked up for political pandering in this country.
Election lawyer Romulo Macalintal, whose petition before the SC led to that landmark ruling, has pointed out that the same excuses used in the past are being raised again in this latest effort.
Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla, who belongs to a political clan, and the Commission on Elections reportedly expect President Marcos to sign the law for yet another postponement. It is sure to face another legal challenge, messing up the BSKE and bloating election expenses.
The President is no longer up for election and can instead give the right of suffrage a boost by vetoing this measure and telling his allies and his elder sister to stop postponing the BSKE, already.