Negros lawmaker seeks BSKE delay amid crises

By Glazyl M. Jopson

QUEZON CITY — Negros Occidental 3rd District Rep. Javier Miguel Benitez filed a bill seeking to postpone the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections to November 2028.

Benitez personally filed House Bill 10591 on Tuesday afternoon to postpone the Nov. 2, 2026, BSKE and reschedule them for the last Monday of November 2028 after garnering support from 63 members of the House of Representatives.

In a media interview after filing the bill, Benitez cited three reasons for seeking the BSKE postponement — the energy crisis, calamities, and the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao parliamentary elections.

“This does not mean that the BSKE is cancelled,” the Negros lawmaker stressed.

The bill’s explanatory note said postponing the BSKE is not unprecedented, although legislative precedent does not by itself establish constitutional validity.

An election postponement restricts the people’s right to select their representatives at the time fixed by law.

The bill highlighted that the Philippines is confronting an international energy emergency arising from continuing conflict and instability in the Middle East, which have disrupted petroleum supplies and produced severe volatility in global and domestic fuel prices.

During the crisis, reported domestic prices reached as high as PHP 172.90 per liter for diesel, while gasoline exceeded PHP 100 per liter.

The bill stressed that such volatility affects not only transportation but also electricity, freight, equipment deployment, rentals, food, accommodation, communications, and emergency support, preventing the establishment of a reliable cost baseline for election procurement and nationwide logistics.

“The difficulty is neither conjectural nor confined to ordinary market fluctuation. It is a continuing public emergency requiring exceptional governmental action,” the bill stated, adding that the connection to election administration is direct.

The bill said the nationwide movement of ballots, election forms, equipment, security personnel, teachers, and other electoral board members requires training, communications, electricity, generators, transportation, food, accommodation, rentals, warehousing, and contingency support. These requirements are particularly demanding in geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas, where fuel and transportation costs are already substantially higher.

The bill cited Commission on Elections Chairman George Garcia’s statement that the estimated cost of conducting the BSKE is approximately PHP 19 billion. “That estimate preceded, or did not fully account for, the continuing effects of the energy emergency. Conducting the elections without an adequate and realistically calibrated appropriation may impair procurement, reduce logistical coverage, delay the deployment of election materials, and compromise the compensation and support required by Electoral Boards,” it said.

The operational difficulty is also compounded by earthquake damage to schools and other public infrastructure intended for use as voting centers.

Benitez said about 3.2 million students were affected by the magnitude 6.9 earthquake in northern Cebu on Sept. 30, 2025, which damaged or destroyed thousands of classrooms; the magnitude 7.4 earthquake near Manay, Davao Oriental, on Oct. 10, 2025, which affected more than 1,000 schools; and the magnitude 7.8 earthquake on June 8, 2026, which affected General Santos City, Sarangani, Davao Occidental, South Cotabato, and surrounding areas, requiring the inspection, temporary closure, repair, or reconstruction of schools, roads, electrical facilities, water systems, and communications infrastructure.

The bill said public schools are indispensable to Philippine elections. “Where classrooms remain unsafe, inaccessible, occupied by rehabilitation work, or unavailable for public use, the corresponding voting centers cannot be presumed ready,” it said, adding that alternative sites must be identified, inspected, secured, equipped, and made accessible to voters, including senior citizens and persons with disabilities.

The postponement must nevertheless remain narrow. The intervening period is confined to what is reasonably necessary for Congress to provide adequate appropriations and for Comelec to revise its procurement, transportation, compensation, security, voting-center, and contingency arrangements, the bill said.

“The electorate retains an effective opportunity to vote. The election is not cancelled, and the interval is not so remote as to defeat the constitutional requirement of regular and periodic elections. Neither does the bill grant incumbent officials a new term. Their electoral mandate is not renewed or enlarged,” it said.

It added that any continuation in office would arise solely from the statutory holdover principle and last only until the officials’ successors are elected and qualified.

Lastly, the proposed rescheduling of the BSKE would give Comelec and other participating government agencies greater capacity to prepare for and administer the first regular BARMM parliamentary election on Sept. 14, an electoral exercise of exceptional historical and institutional importance.

The elected Bangsamoro government is set to assume office on Oct. 30, with the BSKE scheduled only about a month and a half after the parliamentary election and barangays throughout BARMM also required to participate.

Conducting these major elections in such close succession would place significant demands on Comelec personnel, teachers, security forces, local governments, and logistical support agencies, the bill said.

Thus, rescheduling the BSKE would help ease the administrative burden and allow the historic Bangsamoro election to receive the focused preparation, coordination, and institutional support necessary for its successful conduct, it stated.

The measure stressed that it satisfies the controlling standards: It rests on important and compelling governmental interests; relies on genuine, objective, and verifiable conditions; preserves an effective opportunity to vote; fixes a regular and reasonably proximate election date; adopts a postponement no broader than necessary; and does not rest on a purpose prohibited by the Constitution or existing law.

Earlier, Benitez’s father, Bacolod Rep. and Deputy Speaker Alfredo “Albee” Benitez, expressed confidence that the BSKE would be held this year, although President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. did not mention them during his State of the Nation Address.

Election preparations remain underway unless Congress passes the postponement bill and the president signs it into law.