Marcos to sign bill postponing barangay, SK polls ~ HUMAN RIGHTS PROMOTIONS

Friday, August 8, 2025

Marcos to sign bill postponing barangay, SK polls

Friday, August 08, 2025 Herbert Curia - Promoter No comments

From the Website of INQUIRER
links https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/2093365/marcos-on-postposning-of-bske

Marcos to sign bill postponing barangay, SK polls

MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. on Friday said he will sign into law the bill postponing this year’s barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections (BSKE) to focus on the first-ever Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) polls.

In a sit-down interview with the media in Bangalore, India, Marcos was asked for confirmation on Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman George Erwin Garcia’s statements saying that Malacañang will not hold a formal signing ceremony for the bill but instead let it lapse into law on Aug. 14.

“No, I’ll sign it. I’ll sign it,” the President clarified.

“Because we are facing one of the biggest elements here—we just finished a major election, the midterm election. Next will be the BARMM. Now we’re adding the barangay elections as well. It’s too much—actually, it’s the Comelec saying, ‘We can’t handle it’,” he explained in a mix of Filipino and English.

“Because, well, we really need to focus on the BARMM. You have to remember, the BARMM election coming up in October is the first time we will ever have this kind of election. Ever. In the entire history of the Philippines, there has never been a BARMM Parliament elected by the people. So, that is why it is so important,” he continued.

The President noted that failure of BARMM elections would affect the peace process in the region. This, he stressed, is why the government needs to give its full attention to this election.

“The local officials are saying, we just finished a local election. Now we’re going to have another barangay election. It feels the same. Almost the same. So, we, with a view on the Supreme Court decision that we cannot shorten the term of the barangay officials, we are actually lengthening the term of the barangay officials,” he said.

“So that’s not in conflict. So I think the most sensible and the most common-sense solution is to postpone,” Marcos also said.

Last June, the Senate and the House of Representatives ratified the bicameral conference committee report setting four-year terms, from the current three-year limit, for barangay and SK officials.

This bill also proposes that the barfangay and SK elections be held on the first Monday of November 2026, instead of on December 1, 2025. /gsg