The Commission on Elections is proceeding with preparations for the December barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections despite ongoing congressional push to postpone the polls, a Comelec supervisor said.
The elections are scheduled for Dec. 1, 2025, but lawmakers in both chambers of Congress have passed measures that would effectively delay the vote by extending the terms of current barangay officials.
Roco Lamanilao, Comelec’s election supervisor in Tagbilaran, said during a radio program Monday that the commission must continue its preparations because no law has been enacted to postpone the elections.
He said the poll body does not want to be caught unprepared if the elections proceed as scheduled.
The House of Representatives recently approved a bill extending barangay officials’ terms to six years, which would effectively postpone the December polls.
The measure would delay the Dec. 1, 2025 elections to the first Monday of November 2026, allowing current officials to serve in a holdover capacity.
The timing of the elections stems from a 2022 Supreme Court ruling that declared unconstitutional previous laws postponing barangay elections.
The court ruled that succeeding elections “shall be held on the first Monday of December 2025 and every three years thereafter” under Republic Act 11462.
The high court’s decision came after barangay elections were repeatedly postponed from their original 2018 schedule, with officials serving extended terms without fresh mandates from voters.
Election monitoring groups have strongly opposed the postponement efforts.
The Legal Network for Truthful Elections called the postponement a move that “deprives the electorate of the basic right to choose people who will govern them”.
The National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections urged Congress to “protect the right to vote and let the December 1, 2025 elections push through”.
Election lawyer Romulo Macalintal, who successfully challenged previous postponements before the Supreme Court, argued that the postponement would deprive voters of their “fundamental right of suffrage since they will be governed by barangay officials for almost one full year whom they did not elect”.
Lamanilao said Comelec is likely to conduct manual elections rather than automated voting, citing cost considerations for printing ballots versus electronic systems.
He noted that voter registration periods have been adjusted, moving from the last week of October 2025 to July 2026.
The supervisor also clarified that no order exists to remove voters who failed to participate in two consecutive elections, meaning the voter registry will remain intact.
Regarding personnel changes, Lamanilao said election officers are typically reassigned only if they have relationships with candidates or if specific expertise is needed in certain areas.
He noted his own transfer was due to the need for a lawyer to head operations in a particular Cebu district.
Reports suggested that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. could veto the bill postponing the elections, though the president’s official position remains unclear.
The legislative measures must be reconciled in a bicameral conference committee before reaching the president’s desk.
If signed into law, the postponement would mark another extension of village officials’ terms, continuing a pattern of delayed elections that the Supreme Court previously ruled unconstitutional.