The Supreme Court (SC) was asked to declare unconstitutional Republic Act No. 12232 that extended the term of office of the incumbent Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan officials to four years and postponed their elections set in December this year to November 2026.

RA 12232 was signed into law by President Marcos last August 13. It mandates that the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (BSKE) should be held on the first Monday of November 2026.

The new law limits the term of barangay officials to three terms while only one term for incumbent Sangguniang Kabataan officials.

The SC petition was filed on Friday, August 15, by lawyer Romulo B. Macalintal.

On top of his legal arguments, Macalintal told the SC that RA 12232 was not thoroughly studied or intelligently discussed before its passage.

He said the first Monday of November 2026, which is Nov. 2, 2026, “coincides with All Saints Day -- a widely celebrated religious holiday where a significant portion of the electorate traditionally returns to their respective provinces.”

He pointed that “holding the BSKE on this date would highlight the law's flawed and arbitrary nature.”

In his petition, Macalintal asked the SC to issue a temporary restraining order (TRO) or a status quo ante order (SQAO) to stop immediately the enforcement of the new law.

He also asked the SC to direct the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to continue with the preparations for the Dec. 1, 2025 BSKE “should this Honorable Court ruled that the said elections should take place as scheduled.”

At the same time, Macalintal asked that the incumbent BSK officials in holdover capacity after Dec. 1, 2025 should cease and desist from assuming their functions until further orders from the SC.

Finally, the SC was asked to declare RA 12232 “inoperative, invalid and/or unconstitutional… or to the extent that it pertains to the postponement of the elections of barangay officials on Dec. 1, 2025.”

Macalintal pointed out that President Marcos, himself, cited “election fatigue’ and the “shortness of existing term’ as the primary justifications for the enactment of RA 12232.

But he said if the Dec. 1, 2025 BSKE is postponed the massive preparations done by the Comelec would go to waste.

He also said that the Comelec had reported that “a record of 2.8 million people registered during the recently concluded 10-day registration period (Aug. 1-10, 2025); and that the Comelec will need P4 billion if the BSKE is postponed to 2026.”

He said that Congress has no power to postpone a scheduled election or extend the term of office of any elective officials.

Citing a ruling of the SC, he said that the High Court had declared that the postponement of an election is "a subtle but nonetheless self-serving proposition to lengthen governance without a mandate from the governed."

“Thus, the grave abuse of discretion committed by the Public Respondents is further aggravated by their decision to impose ‘appointed’ barangay leaders upon the people by allowing them to hold over for almost a year without a mandate from the electorate,” he stressed.

Named respondents in the petition aside from the Comelec were the Senate, the House of Representatives, and the Office of the President through Executive Secretary Lucas P. Bersamin.

It was not known immediately if the petition will be taken up in the SC’s full court session on Tuesday, August 19.