NAMFREL urges no more delays after SC ruling on BSKE

MANILA, Philippines — Election watchdog National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections is warning against further delays to the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections after the Supreme Court declared constitutional a law extending barangay officials' terms and moving polls to 2028.

In a statement on Monday, November 9, the organization said that while it respected the High Court's decision, it has not "exhausted the ways the right to suffrage can be protected."

The group cited objections raised by Senior Associate Justice Marvic Leonen and Associate Justice Antonio Kho on the law’s potential to impede the right to vote.

Leonen, joined by Associate Justices Ramon Paul Hernando and Ricardo Rosario, reasoned that successive extensions may "defer the vote unconstitutionally," and that the law prevented Filipinos ageing out of SK eligibility before 2028 from exercising their right to vote.

Kho, meanwhile, was joined by Associate Justice Alfredo Caguioa in saying that Congress could have adopted the new term while holding the elections as scheduled.

The 2028 cycle, Kho argued, created the overlap with the 2028 elections that the law claimed to avoid.

“Our concern is not the length of the term. It is how the term was lengthened. Congress may set a term, but only voters can grant a mandate,” the poll watchdog said in a statement.

The organization also emphasized the need for Congress to be proactive in future scenarios, saying it need not wait for another court case to reform election laws.

Passed in September 2026, Republic Act 12326 moved the next BSK elections from Nov. 2, 2026 to November 2028.

The law also fixes the terms of such officials at five years, effectively granting term extensions to officials voted in during the 2023 elections.

Election lawyer Romulo Macalintal challenged the constitutionality of the law, arguing that it failed to meet the guidelines of a 2023 ruling that allowed the postponement of elections “only for important, substantial or compelling reasons.”

Macalintal also argued that the law violated the people’s right to vote, as voters in 2023 elected the incumbent officials with the belief they would serve three-year terms.