With 21 votes, the Senate has approved on third and final reading a bill postponing the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections set on December 5, 2022 from the original schedule on May 2020.
No senators objected nor abstained from the voting on the Senate floor.
In effect, this would extend to another year the term of office of the incumbent village and youth leaders.
With the 21 affirmative votes, Senate Bill 1043 was approved on third and final reading after the Senate Electoral Reforms Committee chaired by Senator Imee R. Marcos submitted its report in early September.
If enacted into law, there will be two elections in 2022—the presidential elections in May and the synchronized barangay and SK elections seven months after.
The first bill approved by the Senate in the current 18th Congress, the measure initially proposed to have the barangay and SK elections to take place on second Monday of May 2023.
But senators, during last week’s debates, settled to the December 2022 schedule, finding the five-year extension of office on current village and youth leaders too long.
Following the December 2022 local poll exercise, the subsequent synchronized barangay and SK elections shall be held on the first Monday of December 2025 and every three years thereafter.
Under SB 1043, the elected officials shall assume office at noon of Jan. 1, 2023.
The most recent barangay and SK elections were held in May 2018. Originally, it was supposed to take place in October 2017.
If signed into law, it will be the third time that the barangay and SK elections will be postponed under the Duterte administration.
The bill proposes holding the barangay and SK elections every three years.
Marcos earlier said the six and half months period is enough for Comelec to prepare for the local polls.
“We have given six and a half months which they consider as sufficient time. It is manual, it is not hybrid…So six and a half months or so apparently is a short period, Comelec will be pressed for time but they claim that they can do it without undue failure of elections and other problems,” she said.
The barangay elections had been postponed six times since 1988.
Senate President Pro-Tempore Ralph Recto on Friday said Barangay officials should be given a six-year term to stop the practice of frequently postponing the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan polls.
“I propose elections to be held either one year before or after the presidential elections and every six years thereafter. I also propose the term of office should be six years with one reelection,” Recto said.