President Marcos urged: Veto bill extending term of barangay execs

MANILA, Philippines — President Marcos should veto the bill seeking to extend the term of barangay officials and again postpone the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections (BSKE), lawyer Romulo Macalintal said yesterday.

“For President Marcos to approve this bill or allow it to lapse into law would be tantamount to abandoning the sacred right of suffrage of the Filipino electorate. Filipinos justly deserve to elect their leaders and should not be led by individuals without the people’s mandate,” Macalintal said.

He said the President must immediately veto the reconciled bill from Congress styled as “An Act Setting the Term of Office” for barangay officials.

Macalintal said the bill is actually aimed at extending the existing term of incumbent barangay officials by another year and granting them a fresh four-year term if reelected in the proposed new schedule on Nov. 2, 2026 for the BSKE, from Dec. 1 this year.

He said it is impractical to hold the BSKE on Nov. 2, 2026 since this coincides with the holidays honoring the dead.

He reminded the President’s legal team of the Supreme Court ruling that the postponement of any election must be supported by valid government interest to ensure a “free and meaningful exercise of the right to vote requiring the holding of genuine periodic elections.”

The proposed postponement of BSKE, he said, lacks any valid reason or government interest to support its passage.

Macalintal said the bill suffers from the same constitutional and legal flaws as Republic Act No. 11935, which attempted to postpone the December 2022 BSKE but was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in the landmark 2023 decision.