THE Commission on Elections (Comelec) is feverishly preparing for the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections (BSKE) to be held in October this year.
Originally, these elections were set on Dec. 5, 2022. This is the fourth time since 2016 that the barangay elections were postponed; the first three times were under the Duterte administration.
Finally, President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. signed a new law, Republic Act 11935, which rescheduled the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections on the last Monday of October 2023, “and every three years thereafter.” The term of office of the newly elected officials will start at noon on November 30 following their election.
Since this is the first national elections to be administered by the new Commission on Elections (Comelec) under Chairman George Garcia, the poll body has noticeably been very active in preparing for this political exercise.
The Comelec under Chairman Garcia is planning to set the period for filing the certificates of candidacy (COC) for the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections by July. The reason for this, according to Garcia, is to give the commission enough time to resolve disqualification cases that may arise.
‘It was known at the hearing that in the last SK elections, the election body handled nearly 4,000 disqualification cases involving overage SK candidates.’
“We intend also to have the filing of the candidacy by July. It will be earlier so that we’ll be able to resolve all disqualification cases more or less, especially nuisance cases,” Garcia said at the recent hearing of the Senate committee on electoral reforms and people’s participation.
Garcia told Sen. Imee Marcos, chairperson of the committee, that they have instructed all election officers to refuse to accept the certificates of candidacy of SK candidates who, based on the records of the Commission on Elections, are more than 24 years of age.
“Therefore, the filing of candidacy is no longer a ministerial duty on the part of the Comelec as far as SK is concerned. If they are not registered voters, automatically we will not accept the candidacy based on the record on file with the Comelec,” Garcia added.
It was known at the hearing that in the last SK elections, the election body handled nearly 4,000 disqualification cases involving overage SK candidates.
Young citizens aspiring to join public service should be honest and responsible enough to state their true age and qualifications. The Comelec is therefore on the right track in strictly implementing the law.
The postponements of the BSKE in the past proved that the law on barangay elections has been honored more in the breach rather than in the observance. It is well that this time around, the Comelec under the Marcos administration will finally make it happen.
