EDITORIAL — Travesty of suffrage

In 2023, the Supreme Court prohibited the extension of the terms of barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan officials through an unduly prolonged postponement of the BSK elections.

The Supreme Court allowed the BSKE to be held a year after the original schedule, but said this one-year extension would be added to the term of those who would be elected, which meant they would serve for two years instead of three. This was meant to finally correct the BSKE calendar that had been messed up by the repeated postponements of the village elections since the presidency of Rodrigo Duterte.

After the last postponement, through Republic Act 11935 that was among the first laws to be signed by President Marcos, the SC acted on a petition filed among others by veteran election lawyer Romulo Macalintal. The SC struck down RA 11935, describing as unconstitutional the repeated BSKE postponements that effectively extended the terms of BSK officials by at least a year.

Now the President has said he will again sign yet another law, for yet another postponement of the BSKE set this year, and effectively rewarding the incumbents with one more year in office.

Another reason the President cited is that the Commission on Elections is supposedly not ready for the BSKE, which is set a month after the first parliamentary elections in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao in October. If Comelec officials actually said this and meant it, the poll body should close shop if it cannot supervise a nationwide vote after elections in just one region.

Apart from voters being deprived of the right to pick a new set of village and youth council officials, there are thousands who want to run and replace the incumbents during the BSKE on Dec. 1 this year. At the end of the voter registration period yesterday, the new registrants had exceeded two million, the Comelec said.

The scheduled vote is meant to end the repeated postponement of the BSKE, which has become a bad habit of politicians who want to reward their political leaders at the grassroots.

Macalintal has noted that several of the same excuses raised in RA 11935 are being raised in the latest bill, which the President is set to sign this week. It is expected to face another legal challenge and further mess up the BSKE calendar, apart from proposing a longer four-year term for BSK officials. At the end of those four years, will lawmakers push for a five-year term? Eight? Forever?

Repeated postponements of the BSKE have become another instrument of political patronage, undermining the constitutionally guaranteed right of suffrage. And the President is set to give this travesty of the vote his stamp of approval.