THE Liga ng mga Barangay ng Pilipinas (LBP or Liga) yesterday sought to intervene in the petition filed with the Supreme Court (SC) questioning the postponement of the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections (BSKE) from December this year to November 2026.
At the same time, the LBP also asked the SC to junk the petition filed by veteran election lawyer Romulo Macalintal challenging the constitutionality of Republic Act 12232, which postponed the holding of the BSKE polls this year.
Aside from Macalintal, a group of young voters from the Kaya Natin Youth group have also questioned the legality of postponing the barangay and youth polls.
The petitioner said the petitions should be dismissed due to lack of merit.
In its petition, Liga said the 2023 ruling of the SC on Macalintal vs. Comelec does not apply to the case at hand since the decision dealt only with the postponement of the 2022 BSKE, while RA 12232 fixed and extended the terms of barangay and SK officials, a power which it said is exclusively granted to Congress.
“With due respect, the Supreme Court cannot equate the two laws and declare the later law unconstitutional on the basis of the ruling in the earlier law,” said the petition which was signed by 51 movant-intervenors led by San Fabian, Echague, Isabela Barangay Captain Maria Katrina Jessica Dy, the league’s national president.
“The words ‘postpone’ or ‘postponement’ are nowhere to be found in the later law,” it likewise pointed out.
The petition also stressed that the right of suffrage of voters will not be impaired since their right to vote remains, but “only the timing of its exercise is adjusted.”
RA 12232 was signed into law by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on August 13. It set a four-year term for barangay and youth leaders, effectively moving the conduct of the BSKE from December 1 this year to November 2, 2026.
The league likewise said that under the Constitution, Congress has the sole power or authority to fix the term of barangay and youth officials.
“To reiterate, the authority to extend the term of BSK officials is one that is granted by the Constitution to the legislature. The authority to question this wisdom without any evidence of its illegality, inequity, or grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction is one that the Constitution guards against,” it said.
The SC has already directed the Senate, the House of Representatives, the Commission on Elections and Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin to comment on Macalintal’s petition.
Macalintal has said that postponing the BSKE is tantamount to a violation of the people’s right to suffrage and their right to information.
He cited the 2023 SC ruling in his plea against the postponement of the BSKE election which, he said, held that Congress has no authority to postpone the conduct of elections if there is no valid reason to do so.
