THE HOUSE of Representatives electoral reforms committee on Tuesday approved a proposal postponing Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections (BSKE) by a year to 2026 to avoid cutting local officials’ terms short.
The panel sponsored House Bill No. 10344, which seeks to move the schedule of polls for barangay officials to Oct. 2026 from Dec. 2025. This is in accordance with the Local Government Code of 1991 which prescribed a three-year term for local officials.
“As the Local Government [Code] would specifically provide, the term of barangay officials should be three years… we should not cut short their terms,” Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Raymund F. Villafuerte, Jr. said in an interview.
“The right of the people to elect an official [entails that] they expect the elected official to perform it in three years… they cannot [effectively] perform [their duties] in two years,” he added.
The bill seeks to harmonize the barangay election cycle as the 2022 polls for barangay officials were postponed to Oct. 2023, a move which the Supreme Court declared as unconstitutional. — Kenneth Christiane L. Basilio
