There will be no Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (BSKE) on Dec. 1, 2025.

Instead, the BSKE will be held in November 2026 as mandated by Republic Act No. 12232 which was declared constitutional by the Supreme Court (SC) in a decision released on Tuesday, Nov. 11.

RA 12232 was signed into law by President Marcos last August 13.

The new law limits the term of barangay officials to three terms with only one term for incumbent Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) officials. It also extended the term of office of barangay and SK officials from three to four years.

With the term extension, the Dec. 1, 2025 BSKE was reset to the first Monday of November 2026.

The first petition against RA 12232 was filed by lawyer Romulo B. Macalintal. Thereafter, two more petitions were filed by John Barry T. Tayam, and a group of young voters led by Mystro Yushi P. Fujii.

A petition for intervention was filed by Liga ng Mga Barangays sa Pilipinas which asked the SC to declare as constitutional RA No. 12232.

In denying the petitions against RA 12232, the SC – through Associate Justice Jhosep Y. Lopez – said that the law is fundamentally a term-setting law for Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan officials, establishing a four-year term and prohibiting consecutive terms for the Sangguniang Kabataan officials.

The SC pointed out that RA 12232 is not a law postponing elections and that the rescheduling of the elections is merely incidental.

It also ruled that the law does not violate the public’s right to vote, as it neither abolishes nor indefinitely suspends the BSK elections. The law simply changes the interval from three to four years, and thus, elections remain regular, periodic, and certain.

It added that voters know when the next election will take place, can hold officials accountable at fixed intervals, and retain full democratic control over barangay governance.

At the same time, the SC ruled that RA 12232 is not discriminatory.

It pointed out that a law treating barangay officials differently does not amount to undue favor or discrimination when such treatment is expressly allowed by the Constitution.

It emphasized that barangays are distinct from other local government units. As the smallest political unit serving smaller communities, the SC said that barangay officials perform different functions and operate with less complex administrative structures.

Thus, it said, the elections set for Dec.1, 2025 have been rescheduled to November 2026. Incumbent officials shall remain in office until their successors are elected, it added.

In his petition, Macalintal told the SC 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.

In their petition, the young voters told the SC that many of them will not be able to run for SK posts since they would be 24 years old after Dec. 1, 2025. Under the law, SK posts are limited to Filipino voters aged 15 to 24 at the time of the elections.

Also, they said that voters who will be 30 years old after Dec. 1, 2025 will no longer be able to vote for SK candidates since the voting for SK candidates are limited to those aged 15 to 30.

They told the SC that the postponement of the BSKE would deprive them of their right of suffrage due to age limitations under the law.

In its petition for intervention, the association of more than 42,000 barangays nationwide, represented by its National President Maria Katrina Jessica G. Dy, asked the SC to dismiss the two earlier petitions which challenged the constitutionality of RA 12232.

The association told the SC that Congress has the power to fix the term of office of barangay and SK officials under Sections 3 and 8 of Article X and Section 1, Article VI of the Constitution.

It pointed out that the 2023 SC decision that invalided RA 11935, which postponed the Dec. 5, 2022 BSKE, “is fundamentally distinct from the present law, RA 12232.”

While RA 11935 postponed the BSKE, RA 12232 fixed the term of office of barangay and SK officials at four years, and effectively postponed the Dec. 1, 2025 elections, it said.

Thus, it stressed that the two laws “are materially different legislative acts, and, accordingly, the SC ruling in the 2023 case cannot be invoked to strike down RA 12232.”