Voting 17-2, the Senate approved the measiure seeking to postpone the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections from December of this year to December 2023.
Seventeen senators voted in the affirmative while two senators voted against the postponement.
Senate Bill No. 1306, or An Act Postponing the December 2022 Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) Elections, seeks to amend Republic Act No. 9164, as amended by Republic Act No. 9340, Republic Act No. 10632, Republic Act No. 10656, Republic Act No. 10923, Republic Act No. 10952, and Republic Act No. 11462.
It was Sen. Imee R. Marcos who sponsored the bill as chair of the Senate committee on electoral reforms.
“The fact that the barangay and SK elections have been postponed relentlessly through decades merely underlies the unfinished business of deeper issues plaguing both the barangay and SK systems,” Marcos said in her sponsorship speech.
“Thus, this proposed election postponement is a means to buy us time for a series of measures that the Committee on Electoral Reforms and People’s Participation is proposing to Congress. This is merely a preliminary measure to give us time to study and debate the deeper issues confronting the barangay and SK systems under our present law,” Marcos further said.
The bill provides a "hold over" provision, stating that “until their successors shall have been duly elected and qualified, all incumbent barangay and sangguniang kabataan officials shall remain in office, unless sooner removed or suspended for cause: Provided that the barangay and sangguniang kabataan officials who are ex officio members of the sangguniang bayan, sangguniang panlungsod, or sangguniang panlalawigan, as the case may be, shall continue to serve as such members in the sanggunian concerned until the next barangay and sangguniang kabataan elections.”
The bill also stated that funds needed for the implementation of the proposed law shall be taken from the appropriations of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) under the General Appropriations Act and or supplementary appropriations thereafter: "Provided, that the additional budget for the barangay and sangguniang kabataan elections to be held on the second Monday of December 2023 shall not exceed 15 percent of the budget allocation for the postponed December 5, 2022 barangay and sangguniang kabataan elections,” the bill stated.