‘If elections were held today, most of our current village leaders would surely not make the cut.’
AFTER being deferred several times in the past, the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (BSKE) scheduled for Dec. 1, 2025 will again be postponed, now to November 2026.
This move effectively extends the already overdue terms of barangay and SK officials. A bill approved by both houses of Congress is set to become law when the President signs it next week.
This raises a pressing question: What have these officials done to deserve such a special extension? And why is the BSKE the only elections so prone to “regular” postponements?
This repeated deferment unjustly prevents more qualified people from replacing a cadre of recycled barangay and SK officials. It also disenfranchises an estimated one million newly registered voters who are looking forward to participating in their first election, not to mention the countless existing voters eager to elect new leaders who promise an enlightened leadership.
Postponing the BSKE is tantamount to incentivizing mediocre public servants and obstructing the potential for better governance at the most basic level of government.
The argument that a postponement is necessary to avoid disrupting ongoing projects is weak. Any reasonable incoming official would continue programs that genuinely benefit their community.
Whatever alignment or adjustment is needed in the terms of office of barangay and SK leaders can be cured later.
Moreover, the voting patterns from the last mid-term elections showed a massive shift in how the young electorate chooses its leaders.
If elections were held today, most of our current village leaders would surely not make the cut.
So, again, we must ask: What great accomplishments have they delivered that the nation owes them another extension of their poor leadership?
One flimsy reason also given for the postponement is that a single day of voting would interrupt the “excellent work” of these leaders.
But many of these “non-partisan” officials were busy last summer hosting campaign rallies and hauling their constituents in as prop-audiences, instead of de-clogging canals, ridding their streets of drugs and litter. and addressing traffic.
Election watchdogs and experts oppose this deferment, warning it goes against what the Supreme Court has already ruled about resetting elections.
The Legal Network for Truthful Elections stated that postponing the 2025 barangay polls “deprives the electorate of the basic right to choose people who will govern them.”
Election lawyer Romulo Macalintal, who successfully challenged the 2022 BSKE deferment in court, noted that the President should have vetoed the bill to show respect for the people’s right to choose their leaders.
The National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections also stands against the postponement, arguing that as the government unit closest to the people, barangays require regular, periodic elections.
“Delaying the 2025 BSKE can weaken people’s trust in the electoral process and take away the chance for communities and the youth to be heard,” it said In a statement.
The High Court itself emphasized in its ruling that “meaningful voting requires genuine periodic elections which ensure that the authority of government continues to be based on the free expression of the will of electors.”
There is no urgency in further delaying these elections.
Allowing the BSKE polls to proceed this December would serve as a vital cleansing tool, ensuring that barangays become truly non-partisan political units that deliver basic public service without patronage and favor.
This is also a crucial step toward guaranteeing a clean and honest 2028 election.
Continuing to postpone these polls is not just a folly; it’s a dangerous fallacy that undermines the very foundation of our democracy.
