The Supreme Court (SC) decided to hold oral arguments starting at 3 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 21, on the petition that challenged the constitutionality of Republic Act No. 11935 which postponed the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (BSKE) from Dec. 5, 2022 to Oct. 30, 2023.
During its full court session on Tuesday, Oct. 18, the SC directed the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and the Office of the President thru Executive Secretary Executive Secretary Lucas P. Bersamin to file their comments on the petition not later than 12 noon on Friday, Oct. 21.
The petition was filed last Monday, Oct. 17, by election lawyer Romulo B. Macalintal who told the SC that the power to postpone elections is within the exclusive jurisdiction of the Comelec under Section 5 of Batas Pambansa Blg. 881, the Omnibus Election Code of the Philippines.
Also, Macalintal said that while the Constitution gives Congress the power to determine or fix the term of office of barangay officials, “the Constitution does not give Congress the power to postpone the barangay elections nor to extend the term of office of the barangay officials.”
Under RA 11935 which was signed into law by President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. last Oct. 10, the BSKE will be held on the last Monday of October 2023 or on Oct. 30, 2023.
The law provides that all incumbent barangay and SK (Sangguniang Kabataan) officials will remain in office until their successors are elected and qualified or unless they are sooner removed or suspended.
Barangay and SK officials, who are ex-officio members of the Sangguniang Bayan, Sangguniang Panlungsod, or Sangguniang Panlalawigan will continue to serve until the next BSKE, unless removed under existing rules, the new law also stated.
Specifically, Macalintal said that RA 11935 is unconstitutional because of the postponement and the extension of office of barangay officials.
“In a word, what the Constitution prohibits, the questioned law permits. Here what Congress cannot do directly, it is doing indirectly,” he said.
Macalintal stressed that barangay officials are elected and not appointed.
“If they stay in power, these holdovers cannot be considered as ‘representatives’ of the people in their respective barangays but representatives of Congress to whom these barangay officials owe their holdover positions,” he said.
Thus, he said, RA 11935 “violates the electorate’s right to due process as they are forced to accept these appointed barangay leaders, whether they like them or not, upon the expiration of the term of office of these officials, without notice and hearing.”
He also said that “postponing the Dec. 5, 2022 barangay election is a subtle way ‘to lengthen governance without the mandate from the governed.”
“Comelec had already prepared for the Dec. 5, 2022 barangay election and expressed its readiness to conduct the same. For sure, billions of pesos had already been spent by the Comelec and these will go to waste if the said election is postponed,” he stressed in his petition.
He pleaded the SC to compel the Comelec to continue with its preparations and to order the holding of the BSKE as scheduled on Dec. 5, 2022.
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