EDITORIAL — Rule on the BSKE postponement ‘

Budget watchdogs have welcomed the Supreme Court’s ruling declaring as unconstitutional the national budgets for 2024 and 2025 and certain provisions of the 2026 outlay. Swift SC action on petitions related to the impeachment trial have also been lauded.

Still awaited is the SC’s ruling on the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections, which Congress and Malacañang have postponed yet again, not just for another year but two.

The SC had previously declared the repeated BSKE postponements as unconstitutional. But this was skirted by lawmakers and President Marcos by making the poll deferment ride on yet another change in the term of office of BSK officials, from four to five years.

This came just a year after Congress and Malacañang used the same tactic to postpone the BSKE in 2025,  by giving village and youth council officials a new term of four years from the original three.

The SC threw out a legal challenge to that move, which must have inspired lawmakers and Malacañang to pursue the same tack this year. They even junked a compromise proposal to make the law apply only to those who would be elected in the BSKE scheduled this Nov. 2.

Repeated postponement of the BSKE – or any electoral exercise for that matter – deprives voters of the right to choose new officials. It also robs aspirants of the opportunity to replace the incumbents.

The SC had previously said elections may be postponed only for periods that are not “unduly long.” A two-year postponement is obscenely long, and the total three years of term extension is a travesty of the electoral process.

Why do lawmakers and the executive have such a soft spot for barangay officials? A look at the beneficiaries of the term extensions will show that many barangay officials belong to entrenched political dynasties, or are grassroots political operators of lawmakers.

As for the youth council members, many of them will be overaged for the Sangguniang Kabataan by the time their term extensions are over. 

The SC moved quickly to seek a response from Congress and the executive to the petitions filed against the latest BSKE postponement. The high court should issue its ruling on the matter with the same speed.