Marcos signs law postponing BSKE to Nov. 2026; officials’ terms extended
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. INQUIRER.net/Ryan Leagogo
MANILA, Philippines — It’s final and official.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. signed on Wednesday the law postponing this year’s barangay and sangguniang kabataan elections (BSKE), for the government to focus on the first-ever parliamentary elections of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).
Republic Act No. 12232 reschedules the supposed Dec. 1, 2025 BSKE on the first Monday of November 2026, which falls on Nov. 2, 2026, All Souls’ Day.
The regular BSKE shall be held every four years thereafter.
A copy of the signed law was forwarded to Malacañang reporters on Wednesday night. It shall also be published in the Official Gazette.
READ: Lawyer to Marcos: Veto ‘recycled’ BSKE postponement bill
RA 12232 also extended the terms of barangay and SK officials to four years, from the current three years under the Local Government Code of 1991.
Barangay officials can still serve for three consecutive terms or up to 12 years in the same position, while SK officials’ terms are reduced to a maximum of one.
Incumbent elective barangay officials serving their third consecutive term in the same position shall not be eligible to run for the same position in the November 2026 BSKE.
Marcos earlier expressed his support to reschedule the BSKE, saying it was the “most sensible and the most common-sense solution” for the government to properly conduct the BARMM parliamentary elections on Oct. 13.
Voters in BARMM will vote for new members of their parliament to replace its interim governing body, the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA), which is composed of presidential appointees.
According to Marcos, the BARMM parliament polls are “so important,” saying their failure would compromise the ongoing peace process.
“We really need to have a successful BARMM elections, that’s why we really, really are focusing on that,” he said.
Prior to this, veteran election lawyer Romulo Macalintal urged the president to veto the bill deferring the BSKE.
He argued it was a “recycled” version of a law previously nullified by the Supreme Court.
According to Macalintal, the enrolled bill suffers from the same constitutional and legal flaws as Republic Act No. 11935 signed by Marcos in 2022.
The law attempted to delay the December 2022 BSKE but was later declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in its landmark 2023 decision (G.R. No. 263590, G.R. No. 263673).
The high court ruled that any delay in the elections must be supported by “sufficiently important, substantial, or compelling” reasons to protect the right of suffrage.
It noted that superficial justifications—such as “election fatigue” or cost-saving—are not valid grounds for postponement. /mr
