THE SUPREME Court (SC) has upheld its ruling that voids the law postponing the village and youth council elections from December 2022 to this month, although the actual poll exercise set on Monday is now a legal practicality.
In a statement on Tuesday, the High Court said it denied the Office of the Solicitor General’s (OSG) motion for reconsideration which said the polls’ postponement was supported by legitimate government interests to look over reforms the state could implement in the elections.
“While the power of the Congress to legislate all matters of general concern or common interest is broad and plenary… it is limited by the Constitution, either expressly or impliedly,” it said even as the copy of the ruling has yet to be uploaded to the SC website.
“As it stands now, the elections are a go by Oct. 30 and Dec. 2025 is the next one,” Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman George Erwin M. Garcia said in a statement commenting on the SC decision.
In October last year, President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. signed into law setting the village elections, which were originally scheduled for December last year, on the last day of Monday of October 2023 and every three years thereafter.
Last June, the High Court voided the law, saying there was no compelling reason to delay the right to vote provided by the Constitution.
The court also set village and youth elections on every first Monday of December starting in 2025.
“The SC has the last say on the issue of constitutionality of laws and actions of officialdom,” Mr. Garcia said.
Meanwhile, in a resolution released to the media on Tuesday, Comelec said it would bar the proclamation of winning candidates with pending illegal campaigning and premature campaigning cases in this year’s village and youth council elections. — John Victor D. Ordoñez
