3 Senate panels nod postponement of barangay, SK elections to May 2023

FILE: RIGHT TO VOTE. A voter feeds his ballot into the Vote Counting Machine for the National and Local Mid-Term Elections inside Precinct No. 109325 at the Dela Paz Elementary School in Antipolo City. (PNA photo by Rico Borja)

Three Senate committees gave its nod to a proposal seeking to postpone the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections to May 2023.

Instead of having the elections on May 2020, under Senate Bill (SB) No. 1043, it will be held on the second Monday of May 2023. It also sets the subsequent barangay and SK elections every one year following the national and local elections.

The term of office of the elected barangay and SK officials will begin at noon of June 30 after the polls.

“Until their successors shall have been duly elected and qualified, all incumbent barangay officials shall remain in office, unless sooner removed or suspended for cause,” it read.

The bill was approved last September 11 by the committees on electoral reforms and people’s participation, local government, and finance, headed by Senators Imee Marcos, Francis Tolentino, and Sonny Angara, respectively.

The last barangay and SK elections were held on May 2018, after being postponed twice. It was first postponed from October 2016 to October 2017, then further pushed back to May 2018 after President Rodrigo Duterte signed Republic Act (RA) No. 10952, which also states that the subsequent synchronized barangay and SK elections shall be held on the second Monday of 2020 and every three years thereafter.

In his fourth State of the Nation Address (SONA), Duterte called on Congress to postpone the May 2020 village and youth council elections to October 2022.

“Because if you read it, this… To rectify the truncated terms. Paiba-iba na eh (It is always changing),” he said.

“The truncated terms of sitting barangay [officials] but also provide them with the ample time to finish their programs and projects,” he added.

The President told the Congress to study the postponement “carefully.”