Barangay, youth polls reset questioned in SC

MANILA, Philippines — Election lawyer Romulo Macalintal has mounted a fresh legal challenge before the Supreme Court (SC) to declare Republic Act (RA) No. 12326 unconstitutional and stop the deferral of the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (BSKE).

Aside from postponing this year’s election, RA 12326 extends the term of office for barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) officials to five years.

The new law, however, limits barangay officials to two terms instead of three while SK officials are limited to one five-year term.

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In his 26-page petition filed on Monday, Macalintal urged the high court to issue an immediate temporary restraining order or a status quo ante order to stop the implementation of RA 12326.

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READ: Barangay, youth execs’ terms extended to 5 yrs

The new law that took effect on Sept. 25 extended the term of office of barangay officials from four to five years, while the election was moved to November 2028, or six months after the presidential and general elections set for May 8 that year.

But Macalintal told the high court that the 2026 elections were already on a delayed schedule because the last BSKE election was held on Oct. 30, 2023, with the succeeding election supposedly set for December 2025.

This is the third time that President Marcos had signed a law amending the BSKE law.

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On Oct. 10, 2022, Mr. Marcos signed RA 11935, which reset the BSKE from Dec. 5, 2022, to Oct. 30, 2023. The Supreme Court declared it as unconstitutional in June 2023.

On Aug. 13, 2025, he signed RA 12232, which, again, reset the BSKE from Dec. 1, 2025, to Nov. 2, 2026. RA 12232 extended the terms of barangay and SK officials from three years to four years.

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Macalintal in 2025 challenged RA 12232 but the high court, voting 8-5-2 on Nov. 11 that year, upheld the law’s constitutionality.

‘Improve public service’

Macalintal’s latest petition against the implementation of RA 12326 criticized the justifications provided by both the executive branch and lawmakers in rescheduling the elections.

During a recent Malacañang briefing, the executive branch cited the need for incumbent officials to help combat crime, address flooding, and manage local garbage disposal as reasons for the delay.

President Marcos, after signing RA 12326, said he expected incumbent barangay and SK officials to use the additional two years to their terms to “further improve public service.”

The President stressed that this “is not additional time in office” but “additional time for accountability to the people.”

“If these incumbent barangay officials still do not know how to do the jobs expected of them, then there is indeed a real and genuine need to proceed with the November 2026 BSKE, so that the electorate may decide whether to give its mandate to these incumbent barangay officials,” the petition stated.

Macalintal added that the arguments invoking the Middle East conflicts, an oil crisis, and potential funding shortages as other reasons to move the BSKE elections are “frivolous.”

He noted that the Commission on Elections (Comelec) had already spent over P8 billion on equipment and other preparations, and declared itself “100-percent ready” for the Nov. 2 vote.

Moreover, the recent Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao elections proceeded peacefully on Sept. 14 under the same global economic conditions.

The petition also cited Senate deliberations where principal sponsor Sen. Francis Escudero admitted that no specific empirical study was conducted to prove that the four-year term under RA 12232 was insufficient.

‘Legislative appointment’

Macalintal added that by allowing incumbent officials to remain in office in a holdover capacity until November 2028 without a renewed mandate, Congress effectively performed a “legislative appointment,” violating the constitutional requirement that barangay officials must be elected.

Citing the “lightning speed” of the law’s enactment and publication barely a month before the scheduled election date, Macalintal asked the Supreme Court to conduct a special raffle of the case.

He requested the high court to direct the Comelec to resume all electoral preparations for the Nov. 2 elections or conduct them at the earliest possible date close to the original schedule.

In an earlier statement, Macalintal said: “The administration failed to realize—or conveniently ignored—the compounding effect of this measure: a massive three-year total postponement of BSKE and a corresponding three-year unauthorized term extension for incumbent officials.”

The last barangay and SK elections held three years ago filled 42,001 seats for punong barangay (village chair), 294,007 seats for barangay kagawad (village council), 42,001 seats for SK chair and 294,007 seats for SK kagawad.

Under the Local Government Code of 1991 (Republic Act No. 7160), barangay officials are compensated through an honoraria, with the minimum set at P1,000 per month for the chair and P600 per month for Sangguniang barangay members.

In 1996, Executive Order No. 332 included the barangay in the unified position classification and compensation system of the government.

This allowed the adjustment of the honorarium to a maximum rate equivalent to the first step of Salary Grade 14 (P32,321) for chair and Salary Grade 10 (P22,190) for Sanggunian members. The implementation of the authorized increase, however, is subject to the availability of barangay funds.

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Aside from honoraria, barangay officials are also entitled to other benefits, such as a Christmas bonus in the form of cash gift at the rate authorized by law; insurance coverage; medical care consisting of free hospitalization in government hospitals; and tuition coverage that can be extended to two of their legitimate dependent children during their term of office. —With a report from Inquirer Research