MANILA — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) will ask the Supreme Court to amend its ruling and to order the next barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections to be held in October 2026.
Comelec Chair George Garcia said the court ruling that set the next barangay and SK elections in December 2025 will result in the conduct of two national elections that year since the midterm elections will be held in May 2025.
The ruling also had the “unintended effect” of shortening the term of barangay and SK officials who will be elected in the Oct. 30, 2023, elections to two years instead of three years, added Garcia.
“The Commission will respectfully urge the Supreme Court to reconsider and extend the application of the operative fact doctrine to declare that the next barangay elections should be [conducted] three years from Oct. 30, 2023, instead of Dec. 5, 2022,” he said.
The elections chief said the “intent” of Republic Act No. 11462, which set the schedule for the barangay and SK elections, was “to space the elections to every three years and to set the term of barangay and SK officials to three years.”
Won’t appeal SC ruling
Garcia said they would not appeal the main ruling of the Supreme Court that declared unconstitutional RA 11935, which reset the barangay and SK elections from its original schedule on Dec. 5, 2022, to Oct. 30, 2023.
He said they would also not contest the criteria laid down by the Supreme Court before Congress can legislate electoral postponements.
The Supreme Court announced on June 27 through its public information office that the 15-member tribunal declared RA 11935 unconstitutional but allowed the barangay and SK elections scheduled on Oct. 30 to proceed. (Dona Z. Pazzibugan © Philippine Daily Inquirer)
