WITH the impending postponement of the December 2025 Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (BSKE), the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said it is looking at resuming the voter registration period in late October.
In an interview, Comelec chairman George Garcia said that “if the BSKE is postponed from December 1 to November 2026, we will open registration again this October, after the Bangsamoro Parliamentary Elections.”
The Bangsamoro polls is set on October 13.
Garcia said that when the voter registration resumes in October, “it will run until July 2026. That’s how long our voter registration will be.”
Garcia said last week that he was informed by Malacañang that the law setting the new terms of barangay and youth officials, and effectively postpone the BSKE, will be signed on August 12.
Garcia said that while there is an ongoing 10-day voter registration period for the BSKE that started on August 1 and will run until August 10, they will not extend this and just resume it at a later date because they have to be certain first that the BSKE will no longer push through.
“A law that has been signed still has a period of publication. After that, it will now be effective. Once it is effective, it can be questioned before the Supreme Court (SC). We will have to see what action the SC will take if someone questions that law,” he said.
Elections lawyer Romulo Macalintal said he is ready and willing to question the impending postponement of the BSKE before the SC.
In a phone interview, Macalintal said he will file the petition and question the legality of the measure if it is signed into law.
“On behalf of the millions of Filipinos, who will definitely lose their right of suffrage, I will file a petition before the SC on constitutional grounds,” he said, as he called on the public to be move vocal against pushing back the BSKE.
“To all freedom-loving people and all who want to strongly fight for their right of suffrage, let us all rise in rightful indignation against any act or move that will deprive us of our constitutional right to choose our leaders,” he said.
In a separate statement, Macalintal reiterated his call for President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to reject the proposed measure by vetoing it.
“Again, Mr. President, please do not sign that bill. If you feel compelled to sign it, please do so with your veto message to demonstrate your sincere respect for the right of suffrage of millions of Filipino voters,” he said, insisting that the bill is unconstitutional similar to the one that moved the December 2022 barangay and youth polls to October 2023.
“Just like Republic Act No. 11935, which postponed the December 2022 BSKE and was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, this new bill postponing the December 2025 BSKE is also unconstitutional for violating the right to due process of law; and accordingly, infringing the constitutional right of the Filipino people to suffrage,” he said.
He also noted that the bill’s provision for a holdover of incumbent barangay officials is unconstitutional since a designation constitutes a “legislative appointment” and supposedly “directly violates the constitutional mandate that barangay officials must be ‘elected’, not ‘appointed’.”
