Marcos signs law postponing Baranggay and SK polls, rescheduling to next year

SORSOGON CITY – Incumbent Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (BSKE) officials, whether they like it or not, will have to stay in their position for another year as President Marcos, on Monday, October 10 signed Republic Act 11935, postponing the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan election and instead setting the polls for the last Monday of October 2023.

Despite the warning from the Commission on Elections that another poll suspension will deprive Filipinos of their right to regularly elect public officials, Marcos signed it into law nevertheless.

This, on top of that, the poll body believed that the rescheduling of the October 2022 BSKE for another year would double its cost from the original P8.4 Billion to a whopping P18 Billion.

This is the fourth time that the BSKE was postponed, one during Marcos and three times during the Duterte administration.

Lawmakers, who advocated for the postponement, claimed that it will buy the government time ostensibly to “roll out” some reforms such as the proposal that, instead of three years, barangay officials will serve for at least three to six years.

Other lawmakers, who also favored the postponement, suggested that the P8.4 B poll budget instead be used for the pandemic response.

Other legislators believed that moving the BSKE next year would have a “healing effect” on the highly divisive 2022 national elections.

But, poll watch dogs did not buy the alibis, saying that this is the time for fresh mandate in villages and youth across the country.