‘WE’VE WAITED TOO LONG’: Namfrel rejects push to postpone 2026 barangay, SK elections

By Francis Allan L. Angelo

The National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) on Sunday came out strongly against any move to defer the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (BSKE) scheduled for November 2026, warning that a postponement — and the realignment of the Commission on Elections’ (Comelec) preparation budget — would strike at the foundations of Philippine democracy.

In a statement, Namfrel said reports that the government intends to put off the polls and redirect Comelec’s electoral preparation funds to other priorities must be “rejected outright.”

“Elections are not discretionary events to be deferred at the convenience of those in power,” the group said. “They are constitutional obligations and democratic rights that belong to the Filipino people.”

Namfrel stressed that the regularity and periodicity of elections is “not a procedural nicety” but “the very heartbeat of democratic governance,” arguing that on-schedule elections renew mandates, enforce accountability and give direct expression to the sovereign will of the people.

The poll watchdog described the proposed diversion of Comelec funds as more than a fiscal adjustment, calling it “a deliberate act of institutional sabotage.”

It said stripping Comelec of resources earmarked for a constitutionally mandated election to prevent that election from proceeding runs afoul of the prohibition on the transfer of budgetary funds under Article VI, Section 25 (5) of the 1987 Constitution, citing the Supreme Court ruling in Macalintal v. Commission on Elections, G.R. No. 263590, dated June 27, 2023.

Such a move, Namfrel added, “sets a dangerous precedent for executive overreach into the independence of our electoral body.”

The group also pushed back on the use of the ongoing Middle East crisis — and its effects on global and local energy prices and supply chains — as a basis for postponement.

While acknowledging that the pressures place “genuine burdens” on the country, Namfrel said they do not meet the threshold of an extraordinary circumstance that can override the people’s right to choose their barangay and SK leaders.

“The Philippines has held elections through far graver national crises. Economic hardship is not a democratic emergency,” the statement read. “It is, if anything, all the more reason to ensure that communities have accountable, properly elected leadership at the most local level.”

Namfrel said the proposed deferment fits a troubling pattern, noting that the BSKE has been repeatedly postponed in prior years, with each delay ultimately serving “political and campaign interests rather than the public good.”

The cumulative effect, the group said, has been to deny millions of Filipinos — particularly the youth — a voice in selecting local leaders, while allowing incumbents to extend their hold on office beyond their legitimate mandates. It warned that what is “dressed up as fiscal prudence is, in practice, a recurring ruse for political entrenchment.”

Citing the role of the barangay as the primary planning and implementing unit of government policies, plans, programs, projects, and activities, and as a forum where community views are crystallized and disputes amicably settled, Namfrel said voters must be allowed to choose — regularly and without interruption — the officials they deal with daily.

It added that elected barangay and SK officials derive their authority from voters “for a defined term, and for no longer,” and that any extension by legislation, executive action or budget manipulation amounts to “a subversion of the democratic mandate.”

“The barangay and SK officials currently holding office do so on borrowed time. The November 2026 BSKE must proceed on schedule,” the group said.

Namfrel urged Congress to reject any measure seeking to postpone or cancel the 2026 BSKE, called on the Executive branch to halt efforts to divert Comelec’s electoral funds, and asked the poll body to defend its institutional independence and press on with full preparations.

It also appealed to the public to remain vigilant, saying democracy “lives not only in the casting of a ballot, but in the insistence that the ballot be cast on time.”

“The Filipino people have waited long enough,” Namfrel said.