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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider National devider SC urged to resolve quickly petitions vs BSKE postponement

SC urged to resolve quickly petitions vs BSKE postponement

Published Oct 5, 2025 12:43 pm
The Supreme Court (SC) was asked to stop immediately the enforcement of the law that postponed to November 2026 the December 2025 Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (BSKE).
Lawyer Romulo B. Macalintal, who was the first petitioner against the constitutionality of Republic Act No. 12232 which postponed the BSKE, said the postponement would entail an additional P4 billion expenses as earlier declared by the Commission on Elections (Comelec).
Macalintal also said the postponement will frustrate about 2.7 million new registered voters who signed up last August 1 to 10 for their first BSKE on Dec. 1, 2025.
At the same time, Macalintal pointed out the recent SC decision which cancelled the Oct. 13, 2025 parliamentary election in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Regions in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) and reset the polls to not later than March 31, 2026.
The resetting of the BARMM election was a result of the SC’s full court decision that declared unconstitutional the Bangsamoro Autonomy Act (BAA) No. 77 which reorganized the parliamentary districts within the autonomous region to reallocate the seven seats initially assigned to the province of Sulu.
It said the reallocation was done five days after the start of the election and, thus, violated Section 5 of the Voter’s Registration Act, which prohibits any alteration of precincts once the election period has started.
The SC had ruled and its decision had become final and executory that Sulu is no longer a part of BARMM.
Macalintal said “there is no more legal or practical means to justify the postponement of the Dec. 1, 2025 BSKE because the main reason for which the said election was postponed under RA 12232 have already ceased to exist.”
He also said that there is no justification for the Comelec to “terminate” its preparation for the December 2025 BSKE considering the postponement of the October 2025 BARMM polls to March 2026.
“If Comelec continued its preparations for the BSKE while the issue of whether or not to postpone the BARMM elections was still pending, then there is no rhyme or reason why it should not continue with its preparations for the December 2025 BSKE now that the October 2025 BARMM elections will not be held,” he stressed.
He added: “The postponement of the BARMM election to March 2026 and the almost simultaneous order of the Comelec to ‘terminate’ its preparations for the December 2025 BSKE are two supervening events that will justify the Supreme Court to immediately resolve our petitions to declare unconstitutional the postponement of the said December 2025 BSKE which was practically hidden or not disclosed in RA No. 12232.”
It was not known immediately if Macalintal’s petition and those filed by other petitions against the constitutionality of RA 12232 will be taken up by the SC in its full court session on Tuesday, Oct. 7.
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