Running for barangay or SK? COC filing starts Sept. 28

ILOILO CITY — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) will continue to accept certificates of candidacy (COCs) for the 2026 Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (BSKE) while the bill postponing the polls awaits President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s action, a regional official said Tuesday.

Comelec-Western Visayas Regional Director Dennis Ausan told Aksyon Radyo Iloilo that filing for the 2026 BSKE will begin Monday, Sept. 28.

He said Comelec has instructed its field offices to keep accepting filings as long as no law postponing the elections has been passed.

“Our guidance to our field officers, who are our receiving officers on the ground, [is that] while there aren’t any laws resetting the November 2, 2026 elections, they have to continue accepting [COCs] starting on Monday, September 28, up to October 5,” Ausan said.

Ausan said the commission will also continue to enforce the election ban, which took effect on Sept. 18. The ban covers hiring and appointments in government agencies, public spending, and the implementation of infrastructure projects and social services, among others.

“We’re continuing to implement [the election ban] because that is the order of the law, and the commission cannot do anything other than to implement it,” the regional director said.

Ausan reiterated that while the postponement bill has not been approved, Comelec must continue to follow existing laws and its own issuances.

“That is the policy of our work, and according to the law and pertinent resolutions of the commission, we really have to do that because we would be remiss in our functions as election officials, so we really do have to do that,” he said.

According to the Senate website, enrolled copies of Senate Bill No. 2387 and House Bill No. 10971 have been transmitted to the Office of the President for Marcos’s approval.

The House of Representatives had adopted the Senate’s version as amendments to its own bill during its Sept. 16 session.

Under the 1987 Constitution, a bill that the President neither signs nor vetoes within 30 days of receipt lapses into law.

If enacted, the measure would give barangay and SK officials five-year terms, with a maximum of two consecutive terms.

It would also move the elections to the second Monday of November 2028, or Nov. 13.

The polls have been reset repeatedly in recent years. Most recently, Republic Act No. 12232, signed in 2025, moved the BSKE from December 2025 to the first Monday of November 2026.

Comelec Chairman George Garcia has said the postponement bills should be approved before the filing period begins.

POSTPONES ACCOUNTABILITY

The Legal Network for Truthful Elections (LENTE), a group of lawyers, paralegals, law students, and volunteers, called on Marcos to veto the bill.

In a statement Tuesday, the group said the bill, if approved, would be “unconstitutional and in direct contrast with the principle of accountability.”

The statement alluded to the Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling in Macalintal v. Comelec, which declared unconstitutional Republic Act No. 11935, the law that postponed the December 2022 BSKE.

The high court allowed the rescheduled elections to proceed, and they were held on Oct. 30, 2023.

“President Marcos himself has staked his administration’s credibility on accountability. Speaking on the flood control anomalies that have angered the public over the past couple of years, he said: ‘I cannot say that we have done enough because we are not done yet,’” the group said in its statement.

“If that principle is to mean anything, it cannot stop at exposing corruption in infrastructure spending; it must also extend to the accountability that regular elections themselves provide. Extending barangay and SK officials’ terms again, without letting voters weigh in, is a step away from accountability at the government level closest to ordinary Filipinos,” the group added.