‘STOP STALLING’: NAMFREL rejects barangay poll delay as more bills emerge

By Francis Allan L. Angelo

The National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections has urged the House of Representatives to reject House Bill No. 10376, which seeks to move the synchronized Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections from Nov. 2, 2026 to November 2028.

The bill was filed on Aug. 1, 2026, and formally introduced on the floor of the House on Aug. 3, 2026.

NAMFREL said in a statement that the elections should proceed as scheduled, describing the Nov. 2, 2026 date as the law of the land.

The election watchdog acknowledged the economic pressures cited by the bill’s proponents, including inflation, energy costs, and the need for fiscal discipline, but argued that those realities strengthen rather than weaken the case for holding the polls on time.

Incumbent barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan officials were elected in October 2023. NAMFREL said a postponement to 2028 would stretch their terms to five years through a legislative holdover, without a fresh mandate from voters.

The group described the effect as a dilution of accountability at the level of government closest to the citizen.

NAMFREL also invoked the Supreme Court’s 2023 Macalintal ruling, which it said made clear that routine administrative concerns such as budget reallocations and general economic shifts do not meet the standard of compelling, extraordinary justification required to postpone an election.

The Court later upheld Republic Act 12232, the law that moved the 2025 barangay vote to November 2026 in order to place village terms on a predictable four-year cycle.

Passing House Bill No. 10376 months after that transition was finalized would reopen a question the law had just settled, NAMFREL said, and would signal to future Congresses that election dates are negotiable.

The organization further questioned the timing of the measure, noting that a shift to November 2028 would place the barangay polls on the same calendar as the next presidential election.

Barangay officials are influential mobilizers in national campaigns, and critics, including constitutional experts and election watchdogs, have said the alignment serves political convenience as much as economic necessity, according to the statement.

NAMFREL argued that any fiscal relief from skipping one election cycle would be temporary and one-time, while the erosion of institutional stability, voter trust, and local accountability produced by repeated postponements is cumulative.

Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections are the most frequently postponed democratic exercises in Philippine history, the group said.

The organization called on Congress to resist further attempts to defer the 2026 polls, including House Bill No. 10591 and any similar measure.

House Bill No. 10591 was filed by Negros Occidental 3rd District Rep. Javier Miguel Benitez on Tuesday afternoon, with the support of 63 members of the House of Representatives.

The measure seeks to reschedule the Nov. 2, 2026 elections to the last Monday of November 2028.

Benitez cited three reasons for the proposed postponement in a media interview after filing: 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. It also acknowledged that an election postponement restricts the people’s right to select their representatives at the time fixed by law.

The measure said 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.

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

The bill said 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 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, the bill said, noting that 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 estimate that conducting the BSKE would cost 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.

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

He 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.

He also cited 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.

Those events required the inspection, temporary closure, repair, or reconstruction of schools, roads, electrical facilities, water systems, and communications infrastructure.

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

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

“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.

Any continuation in office would arise solely from the statutory holdover principle and last only until the officials’ successors are elected and qualified, the bill added.

The measure also argued that rescheduling would give the Comelec and other agencies greater capacity to prepare for the first regular BARMM parliamentary election on Sept. 14.

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.

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.

A parallel measure has also been filed in the Senate. Senator Francis Escudero filed on Thursday a bill proposing to extend the terms of barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan officials from four to five years.

Senate Bill No. 2387 would likewise reschedule the barangay and SK elections from November 2026 to November 2028, followed by a five-year electoral cycle.

The bill amends Republic Act No. 12232, which established the current four-year term for local officials.

Escudero said in the bill’s explanatory note that the initiative seeks to improve stability and consistency in grassroots public service.

“Such intervention would promote continuity in governance, provide sufficient time for community development initiatives, reduce disruptions caused by frequent electoral exercises, and enable local officials to focus on public service rather than on electoral cycles,” Escudero explained.

A transitory provision extends the current terms of incumbent barangay and SK officials by two years, counting the addition as part of a completed term.

Incumbent barangay officials currently serving their third consecutive term would be barred from running for the same position in the November 2028 elections.

The legislation maintains existing term limits, restricting barangay officials to a maximum of three consecutive terms in an identical office while keeping Sangguniang Kabataan officials limited to a single term.

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 the polls during his State of the Nation Address.

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