Youth group files petition before SC challenging BSKE postponement
A youth group files a petition before the Supreme Court to challenge BSKE postponement. Shown is facade of the Supreme Court of the Philippines. | PHOTO: Official website of the Supreme Court.
MANILA, Philippines — The group Kaya Natin! Youth filed a petition before the Supreme Court (SC) to challenge the constitutionality of Republic Act 12232, the law postponing the December 2025 Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections (BSKE).
In a statement on Friday, the group’s legal counsel Emil Marañon said they filed a petition for certiorari, prohibition and mandamus assailing RA 12232, joining a similar petition filed by veteran election lawyer Romulo Macalintal before the SC last August 15.
RA 12232 extends the term of barangay and SK officials from three years to four years and, in turn, moves the next BSKE to the first Monday of November 2026.
READ: Macalintal challenges BSKE postponement law before SC
The group cited the 2023 Macalintal v. Commission on Elections (Comelec) ruling, which declared the postponement of the 2022 BSKE as unconstitutional.
The ruling also stated that postponements must be justified by “sufficiently important, substantial, or compelling reasons to safeguard the right of suffrage.”
“While Congress, under the 1987 Constitution can indeed lengthen the term of office of barangay and SK officials, the retroactive application of the term-lengthening provisions of RA 12232… impermissibly [circumvents] the Macalintal v. Comelec 2023 ruling,” it said.
The petitioners said the postponement meant two of them would lose their right to run for SK office and one of them would lose their right to vote for SK positions since they would age out of eligibility due to the new date.
“The postponement will violate the petitioners’ constitutional right of suffrage, and their basic human right to a periodic, genuine, and regular elections as duly recognized by international law,” they maintained.
According to Marañon, the petition also seeks the SC to apply the term-lengthening provisions only to the winners of the December 1, 2025 BSKE.
“Congress could have lengthened the subject terms of office without necessarily committing the unconstitutional act of postponing the elections,” the group argued. /mr
