๐ฆ๐ฒ๐ฐ๐ผ๐ป๐ฑ ๐ข๐ฝ๐ถ๐ป๐ถ๐ผ๐ป ๐ฏ๐ ๐๐ฟ๐๐ถ๐ป ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ฑ๐ถ๐ป๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑ ๐ . ๐๐ฎ๐ฏ๐ฎ๐น๐
ON JUNE 27, 2023, the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional the law which postponed the holding of the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (BSKE), from its initial schedule of December 5, 2022 to the last Monday of October 2023.
So, the postponement was unconstitutionalโฆ but the SC also recognized the legal practicality and necessity of proceeding with the conduct of the BSKE pursuant to the operative of the doctrine.
In short, the 2022 postponement was realized and the actual BSKE was undertaken on the last Monday of October 2023 provided that the next BSKE election will have to commence in December of 2025.
Here comes another PBBM Republic Act No. 12232 signed on August 13 which again postpones the December 2025 BSKE and moves them to the first Monday of November 2026.
Under the new RA, subsequent regular BSKE will be held every four years thereafter. The new law also provided that the term of office of all elected barangay and SK officials shall be four years and no elective barangay official shall serve for more than three consecutive terms in the same position.
The constitutionality of the postponement was again questioned by popular election lawyer Romulo Macalintal and the SC has yet to act on it.
Macalintal and his co-petitioners argued that there was already a previous SC ruling involving the previous BSKE postponement as they cited the 2023 ruling declaring the postponement unconstitutional.
According to them, and I think the petitioners are right, the 2025 postponement violates the SC 2023 decision and that prioritizing the BARMM elections is not sufficiently compelling or substantial reason to postpone the nationwide BSKE.
The scheduled October 13 BARMM elections was also postponed when the SC declared Bangsamoro Autonomy Acts 58 and 77 unconstitutional, effectively postponing the first BARMM parliamentary elections.
The SC ordered COMELEC to proceed with preparations and the conduct of elections not later than March 31, 2026.
For the BSKE, as of this writing, the SC has not yet issued a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) to stop the implementation of the Republic Act. A SC decision is still pending.
What will happen now? Since the SC said that the postponement of the 2022 BSKE elections is unconstitutional, the administration of BBM should have conducted an immediate election that yearโฆ but then again, the BSKE was done a year after and the opinion of the SC was not followed.
How about if the SC reiterates that this yearโs BSKE postponement is again unconstitutional, will the COMELEC heed the top magistrates this time?
Well, for me, the BBM administration and the COMELEC will again defy the SC and do with their own schedule and that the BSKE will be realized in November of next year.
What else is new? Our top leaders have been defying the SC for years now and that our top leaders have been doing things unconstitutionally for several years now.
The constitution clearly states that there should only be two Autonomous Regions—the ARMM and the CARโฆ and yet we now have the BARMM. The constitution clearly states that upon transmission of a certified impeachment complaint by the House of Representative to the senate, trial must commence โforthwithโ โ and yet, it was not followed.
Is the 2025 BSKE postponement unconstitutional? It doesnโt matter anymore.
