Villafuerte asserts holding next BSKE in October 2026
To put back regularity, stability in such local polls
CAMARINES Sur Rep. LRay Villafuerte has maintained that holding the next Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections (BSKE) in 2026, in accordance with the mandate of the 1987 Constitution and the Local Government Code (LGC) of 1991 on three-year terms for these elective officials, is the way to bring back “consistency, constancy and stability” in the recurring balloting for these local executives.
“We will in fact put back consistency, constancy and stability in the BSKE once the Congress writes new legislation setting the next BSKE in October 2026, in lieu of December next year as now scheduled, in conformance to the electoral mandate of our Constitution and the 1991 LGC for our local elective executives such as barangay and SK officials to serve for three-year terms.
Because our incumbent barangay and SK officials were elected in the BSKE polls last Oct. 30, 2023, they will in effect be serving for shorter two-year terms if the next balloting for these local officials were to be held on Dec. 1, 2025 as now scheduled, Villafuerte, National Unity Party (NUP) president and lead author of HB 10344 setting the next BSKE polls in 2026, said.
Villafuerte agreed with the view of a National Citizens Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) that regular elections guarantee that the government remains accountable to the people as delaying this political exercise erodes confidence in this electoral process and in democratic institutions.
“Thus, we are pushing the holding of the next BSKE in 2026, instead of next year, precisely to bring back regularity to this triennial electoral exercise as set in the Constitution and the LGC of 1991 as well as RA (Republic Act No.) 11462 that remains as the controlling law on the BSKE.”
A Namfrel official was quoted in the media over the weekend as opposing the proposed moving back of the BSKE to 2026, claiming this would create uncertainty and deprive citizens of their right to choose their local leaders regularly.
Dismissing this view, Villafuerte pointed out that letting incumbent local officials to serve for just two years will mean “shortchanging both these elective officials and their respective constituents who had voted them to office as their shorter terms diminishes the obligations of the incumbent BSK officials to serve their constituents, and lessens their accountabilities in the exercise of the power vested in them by the people’s free choice.”
“An elective term is meant to be served out in full,” Villafuerte said. “HB 10344 does not attempt to extend the term of office of the incumbent BSK officials; Rather, it intends to harmonize the mandated three-year term of the incumbents and the next BSK elections.”
“In effect, this gives the present set of barangay and SK officials a full three years to serve and fixes the term for BSK officials to be every three years as mandated by the Constitution and the 1991 LGC,” he said.
Villafuerte noted that the validity and rationality of the reasons that he and the other authors of HB 10344 had cited to press for the holding of the BSKE in 2026 are the apparent reasons why their proposal had racked up immediate support from their peers in the House of Representatives.
Even the Commission on Elections (Comelec) has pointed out that holding the BSKE in 2026 will give this poll watchdog some breathing space as it also prepares for the midterm polls in May 2025, Villafuerte said.
Comelec spokesperson John Rex Laudiangco was reported as saying at a Bagong Pilipinas briefing that: “Sa parte ng Comelec malaking kagaanan po ito kung ililipat kahit ilang buwan lang po sa 2026 ang BSKE dahil po sa ngayon na hindi pa kami tapos maghanda sa May elections kami po’y kasabay na naghahanda para sa BSKE.”
Laudiangco reportedly said that holding the BSKE in 2026 will also give would-be voters more time to sign up for this balloting for local officials.
In HB 10344, Villafuerte along with CamSur Rep. Miguel Luis Villafuerte and Bicol Saro Rep. Brian Raymund Yamsuan stressed that a shorter term for barangay and SK officials is “tantamount to the impairment of the expectations from the incumbents of our electorate’s overall exercise of their right to suffrage.”
In compliance with the constitutional mandate on three-year terms for BSKE winners, Villafuerte said that HB 10344 complies with the election date provided in RA 11462 by moving the balloting to Oct. 26, 2026, from Dec. 1, 2025.
This is because Article X, Section 8 of the Constitution states, said Villafuerte, that, “The term of office of elective local officials, except barangay officials, which shall be determined by law, shall be three years and no such official shall serve for more than three consecutive terms.”
Section 43 (C) of Republic Act (RA) 9164 or the LGC Code, meanwhile, states that, “The term of office of barangay officials and members of the SK shall be for three (3) years, which shall begin after the regular election of barangay officials on the second Monday of May 1994,” he said.
Moreover, he said, Section 2 of RA 9164 states that, “the term of office of all barangay and SK officials after the effectivity of this Act shall be three (3) years.”
RA 11935, which was an amendatory law to RA 9164, postponed the BSKE from Dec. 5, 2022 to Oct. 30, 2023.
The Supreme Court (SC), in Macalintal v Comelec and Hidalgo et al v Executive Secretary, declared RA 11935 unconstitutional, but allowed the October 2023 polls to take place just the same, based on the doctrine of operative fact.
This operative fact doctrine recognizes the validity of a legal provision before its declaration as unconstitutional. Thus, this doctrine makes legitimate an otherwise invalid act.
In its decision on the two cases, the SC declared RA 11935 as unconstitutional for: (1) violating the right to due process of law, and accordingly, infringing the constitutional right of the Filipino people to suffrage; and (2) having been enacted in patent grave abuse of discretion.
However, the SC said that its decision on the unconstitutionality of RA 11935 maintained the “proper recognition of the consequences and effects that cannot be justifiably reversed prior to this ruling,” such that the October 2023 BSKE “shall proceed as scheduled,” and “the sitting BSK officials shall continue to hold office until their successor shall have been elected and qualified.”
The SC said further that, “The Congress, however, is not precluded from further amending RA 9164, as amended, subject to the proper observance of the guidelines herein provided.”
Villafuerte said that, “The election of an official is not only a political contract between the elected leader and the electorate, it is also a legal and social one. It is a sacred contract that is time-bound.”
“Thus, this proposed amendment on setting the next BSKE in 2026 and then every three years thereafter gives the sufficiency of time for barangay and SK officials to fulfill their promises and obligations in accordance with the term of three years as intended by the Constitution, the 1991 LGC and RA 9164,” he said.
With the SC’s invalidation of RA 11935, Villafuerte explained that this meant that RA 11462 remains as “the controlling law on the BSK elections … With the invalidation of RA 11935, the Supreme Court simply respects the term set in RA 11462 in which the current one ends in December 2025.”
In invalidating RA 11935, Villafuerte pointed out “the SC did not assert its power over the Congress, rather it only enforced and upheld the supremacy of the Constitution. More importantly, the High Tribunal explained that, the Congress was not precluded from further amending RA 9164, as amended, subject to the guidelines that the SC had provided.”
He said that the SC’s guidelines are that the poll postponement must be intended: (1) to safeguard the electorate’s right of suffrage; and (2) to safeguard other fundamental rights of the electorate;
Villafuerte said the HB 10344-proposed setting of the BSKE in 2026 complies with both guidelines set by the SC because the new poll date “intends to safeguard the fundamental rights of both the electorate and the incumbent BSK officials.”
“The right of suffrage is not only the actual exercise of the power to choose leaders through actual voting by the electorate, it further extends to the expectations of these chosen leaders to serve and fulfill their promises and platforms of government within the term provided by the law, which is three years,” Villafuerte said.
“In turn, because of the trust given by the electorate, the incumbent elected BSK officials shall serve and perform for three years,” he said.
