Excuses for power grabs

The ink is barely dry on Republic Act 12232. Congress just placed our barangay elections on a predictable four-year cycle, finally giving grassroots governance a semblance of stability.

Now, they want a do-over.

House Bills 10376 and 10591, along with Senate Bill 2387, are suddenly on the table, attempting to drag the November 2026 polls to 2028. We are watching the rules of our democracy being treated like rough drafts.

The excuses are as predictable as they are flimsy. Rep. Javier Miguel Benitez points to earthquakes in Cebu and Mindanao, alongside global oil prices that spiked diesel to PHP 172.90 and gasoline past PHP 100 a liter. Yes, infrastructure damage is a harsh, localized reality. But since when does a damaged classroom in northern Cebu justify stripping a voter in Western Visayas or Metro Manila of their constitutional right to hold local leaders accountable?

Fuel price volatility is the baseline of modern life. It is not an extraordinary surprise. The Commission on Elections has a PHP 19-billion budget estimate for these polls. That money is meant to adapt to logistical nightmares, not surrender to them. Treating everyday economic shifts as a “continuing public emergency” sets a terrifying precedent — one where any economic dip or regional calamity becomes a convenient mute button for the electorate.

NAMFREL said it best: the 2026 schedule is the law of the land. The Supreme Court already drew a hard line with the 2023 Macalintal ruling, declaring that routine administrative hurdles do not meet the standard required to cancel an election. A legislative holdover is not an act of grace but an unconstitutional overreach. It hands incumbent village chiefs a five-year term without a fresh mandate from the people who actually have to live with their decisions.

When the garbage is not collected, when relief goods are distributed with blatant bias, or when neighborhood disputes are ignored, the barangay hall is the first door a citizen knocks on. Diluting accountability at this level affects daily survival. Elections are an essential public investment, never a discretionary line item you slash when inflation bites.

So, why the legislative whiplash? Look at the calendar.

Moving the barangay elections to November 2028 conveniently aligns local holdovers with the next presidential election year. Sen. Francis Escudero claims a five-year cycle helps officials “focus on public service rather than on electoral cycles.” That is just a polite euphemism for shielding incumbents from voter scrutiny.

Let us be brutally honest about how power works on the ground. Barangay leaders are the ultimate political mobilizers. Extending their terms ensures national politicians have a loyal, established network of foot soldiers ready for the 2028 campaigns. Delaying the vote does not save us money. It turns incumbent village chiefs into political hostages who owe their extended grip on power entirely to the lawmakers who gifted it to them.

The barangay polls are already the most frequently postponed democratic exercise in our history. Every delay breeds a little more civic cynicism. You don’t build institutional stability by changing the locks whenever it suits the landlord. You just hope the tenants forget they own the building.