By Benjamin Cuaresma
MANILA — Veteran election lawyer Romulo Macalintal has asked President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to veto the enrolled bill postponing the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (BSKE), warning that another delay would effectively deny voters their constitutional right to choose their grassroots leaders.
In a letter-petition dated Sept. 17, Macalintal urged Marcos to reject the measure that would move the Nov. 2, 2026 elections to Nov. 13, 2028 while extending the terms of incumbent barangay and SK officials from four to five years.
Macalintal also sought a face-to-face meeting with Marcos and the President’s legal advisers to personally present his objections to the legislation.
He argued that the measure’s practical effect is to postpone an election that is already scheduled and allow incumbent officials to remain in office without obtaining a fresh mandate from the electorate.
“While this measure attempts to bypass settled Supreme Court doctrines through semantic wordplay, its true effect is undeniable: the unconstitutional postponement of an imminent election and the forced extension of incumbent tenures without a fresh mandate from the people,” Macalintal said.
Macalintal also challenged the justification for postponing the BSKE for a second time.
He maintained that under binding jurisprudence, postponement of an election should be treated as a strict exception requiring substantial and compelling reasons based on objective circumstances, such as genuine public emergencies or force majeure.
He said the legislative records surrounding the enrolled bill showed a “total vacuum of empirical study or rational deliberation.”
Arguments raised during congressional deliberations involving an alleged oil crisis, foreign wars and funding concerns, he said, failed to satisfy the constitutional standard for disrupting a scheduled election.
Macalintal also cited the Commission on Elections’ readiness to conduct the Nov. 2 polls, noting that ballots had already been printed and about P8 billion had been spent for preparations.
The BSKE was originally scheduled for Dec. 1, 2025, but Republic Act No. 12232, signed by Marcos in August last year, moved the elections to Nov. 2, 2026 to allow the government to focus on the first-ever Bangsamoro parliamentary elections.
The same law extended the terms of barangay and SK officials from three to four years.
Macalintal questioned the move to extend the term again, pointing out that the four-year tenure established under RA 12232 has not even been tested.
“The effectiveness of the four-year term under RA 12232 has not even been tested, yet Congress seeks to extend this term to five years without any valid reason or ground,” he said.
The House of Representatives on Wednesday adopted Senate Bill No. 2387, which seeks to extend the officials’ terms from four to five years and reset the BSKE to Nov. 13, 2028.
The House action eliminated the need for a bicameral conference committee to reconcile separate versions of the measure.
The enrolled bill will now be forwarded to Marcos, who may sign it, veto it, or allow it to lapse into law after 30 days.
Macalintal also criticized the congressional deliberations, saying opposing views from election watchdogs and others were not heard.
He claimed that only barangay officials who supported the extension of their tenure were invited to participate in the discussions.
For Macalintal, the issue ultimately goes beyond the length of an official’s tenure: it concerns whether voters should be given the opportunity to exercise their right to choose their barangay and SK leaders at the time prescribed by law.
ia/xf
