Camarines Sur 2nd district Rep. LRay Villafuerte (PPAB)

Holding the next Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections (BSKE) in 2026 instead of 2025 is the key to bringing back regularity and stability in the democratic exercise. 

Thus, said Camarines Sur 2nd district Rep. LRay Villafuerte as he reasserted his proposal to postpone the BSKE. 

Deferring the BSKE to 2026 is in accordance with the mandate of the 1987 Constitution and the Local Government Code (LGC) of 1991 on three-year terms for these elective officials, Villafuerte said. 

“We will in fact put back consistency, constancy and stability in the BSKE once the Congress writes new legislation setting the next BSKE in October 2026, in lieu of December next year as now scheduled, in conformance to the electoral mandate of our Constitution and the 1991 LGC for our local elective executives such as barangay and SK officials to serve for three-year terms," he said. 

Because the incumbent barangay and SK officials were elected in the BSKE polls last Oct. 30, 2023, they will in effect be serving for shorter two-year terms if the next balloting for these local officials were to be held on Dec. 1, 2025 as now scheduled, Villafuerte noted. 

Villafuerter, a former Camarines Sur governor, had earlier filed HB No.10344, which sought to defer the BSKE to October 2026. 

Villafuerte agreed with the view of a National Citizens Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) official that regular elections guarantee that the government remains accountable to the people as delaying this political exercise erodes  confidence in this electoral process and in democratic institutions. 

Villafuerte pointed out that letting incumbent local officials to serve for just two years will mean “shortchanging both these elective officials and their respective constituents who had voted them to office as their shorter terms diminishes the obligations of the incumbent BSK officials to serve their constituents, and lessens their accountabilities in the exercise of the power vested in them by the people's free choice". 

“An elective term is meant to be served out in full,” he noted. 

He further said: “HB No.10344 does not attempt to extend the term of office of the incumbent BSK officials; Rather, it intends to harmonize the mandated three-year term of the incumbents and the next BSK elections.”