SEVERAL groups slammed President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s approval of the measure postponing the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (BSKE).
Marcos signed the measure on Friday, postponing the next village polls to November 2028 from the original date of Nov. 2, 2026.
In a statement, the National Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) expressed “disappointment and dismay” over Marcos’ decision to move the polls to 2028, the same year as the national and local elections.
“The National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections expresses its disappointment and dismay over President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s signing of Republic Act (RA) 12326 on Sept. 24, 2026 — a law that postpones the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (BSKE) from Nov. 2, 2026 to the second Monday of November 2028, and fixes the term of barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan officials at five years,” the poll watchdog said.
“The law was made public only on Sept. 25, mere days before the scheduled filing of certificates of candidacy on Sept. 28. Namfrel had, on two separate occasions this year — April 17 and Aug. 5, 2026 — publicly and unequivocally called on Congress and the Executive to reject exactly this outcome. That these repeated warnings went unheeded is deeply troubling. That the law was rushed to enactment just ahead of the filing period is more troubling still,” it added.
It also cited that P8 billion spent by the Commission on Elections was wasted because of the postponement of the polls.
“Barangay and SK elections are already the most frequently postponed democratic exercises in the country’s history. Each additional deferral normalizes the practice of legislating around the electorate rather than submitting to it, and makes the next postponement easier to justify. RA 12326 does not merely repeat this pattern — at three years, it is the longest single postponement the BSKE has yet to suffer. The barangay and SK officials currently holding office were elected for a defined term, and for no longer; they now continue to serve on borrowed time that the electorate never granted them,” Namfrel said.
The August Twenty One Movement (ATOM) on Saturday said the postponement of the polls was undemocratic.
“From whatever standpoint you view this recent postponement again of the local Barangay Elections recently signed by Marcos Jr., it remains undemocratic and against the spirit of democracy. You don’t just postpone elections to suit your political plans,” the opposition group said in a statement.
ATOM pointed out that it was the third time the Marcos administration moved to postpone the BSKE.
“The third time he has done something like this since 2022. This equals the three postponements that president [Rodrigo] Duterte also signed during his term to reschedule these elections,” the group said.
“Marcos and Duterte normalized this with three postponements each during their respective terms. But let it be put on record that this is not normal in a democracy. Ferdinand Marcos Sr. was once fond of doing this during the dictatorship. You can’t pretend to be different from your father and from Duterte when you keep doing the things that your father did during martial law,” they added.
Nongovernment organization Build Youth on Saturday said Marcos’ decision carried “consequences beyond a change in the election calendar” and said this needed to be scrutinized.
“Young people who would have participated in the 2026 SK elections will no longer have that opportunity this year. Aspiring young leaders who intended to seek office in the 2026 SK elections will likewise have to wait until the next scheduled polls in 2028,” Build Youth said in a statement.
“Young people deserve to understand why an election was moved, what happens to their opportunity to participate and what safeguards exist to protect the right of suffrage and meaningful representation,” it added.
In a Facebook post, political analyst Ronald Llamas, who worked as former president Benigno Aquino III’s adviser for political affairs, hit Vice President Sara Duterte’s reaction that the elections should have proceeded.
“Sus! Your father (Rodrigo Duterte) had the BSKE postponed three times, in 2016, 2017 and 2020. Did you at least speak up or object at the time?” Llamas said on Saturday.
