The Commission on Elections (Comelec) is set to file a Motion for Reconsideration (MR) urging the Supreme Court (SC) to conduct the next Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (BSKE) three years after the upcoming BSKE in October.
In a statement on Tuesday, July 18, sent to reporters, Comelec Chairman George Erwin Garcia said that the poll body will file an MR for the limited purpose of imploring the SC to revisit its ruling.
Garcia specifically mentioned the part where the SC declared that the succeeding BSKE shall be held on the first Monday of December 2025 and every three years thereafter.
"The SC’s pronouncement will result in the conduct of two nationwide electoral exercises within the same year. Thus, the implementation of R.A. No. 11935 prior to its declaration of unconstitutionality and the subsequent reversal to the periods set in Republic Act No. 11462 will cause the unintended effect of shortening the term of the barangay and officials to merely two years," he explained.
He added that the commission will respectfully urge the SC to reconsider and extend the application of the operative fact doctrine to declare that the next barangay elections should be three years from October 30, 2023, instead of December 5, 2022, considering that the intent of R.A. No. 11462 is to space the elections to every three years and to set the term of barangay and SK officials to three years.
Garcia clarified that the MR will not "assail or discuss" the SC's determination declaring Republic Act No. 11935 as unconstitutional.
He added that it will also not cover the outline criteria laid down by the SC in any subsequent electoral postponements "as this matter is within the competence of Congress".
It can be recalled that the SC declared unconstitutional Republic Act No. 11935, an Act Postponing the December 2022 Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections, which amended RA 9164, the law on Synchronized Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections.
Garcia said that they will file the MR once the Solicitor General has received the full decision of the SC.