BY ATTY. JULIUS GREGORY B. DELGADO
ON BSKE POSTPONEMENT, TERM-SETTING LAWS AND THE MACALINTAL CASES
After the 2018 Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections, the next election was supposedly set on May 2020. However, former President Rodrigo Roa Duterte signed Republic Act No. 11462 on December 3, 2019 postponing the election to December 5, 2022. After which, the said law set the future synchronized BSKE for the first Monday of December 2025 and every three years thereafter.
On October 10, 2022, President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. signed into law Republic Act No. 11935 postponing the December 5, 2022 BSKE to the last Monday of October 2023 and every three (3) years thereafter. Election lawyer Atty. Romulo Macalintal filed a Petition assailing RA 11935.
In Macalintal vs. Commission on Elections, G.R. No. 263590, June 27, 2023, the Supreme Court recognized Congress’s plenary authority to legislate on the scheduling or postponement of election, subject to constitutional limitations. A postponement law must satisfy substantive due process by pursuing a legitimate governmental interest through means that are neither arbitrary nor oppressive of the right of suffrage. The Supreme Court declared unconstitutional RA 11935 based on two (2) grounds:
Firstly, the legislative measure is not supported by a legitimate government interest or objective. It also unconstitutionally exceeds the bounds of the power of Congress to legislate. Principally, the law, as worded, does not provide any supporting reasons or justifications for the postponement of the elections. It is for this reason that the parties offer varying justifications for the postponement of the December 2022 BSKE that, while rationally plausible, raise serious doubts on the law’s fairness and reasonableness.
Secondly, the means employed are unreasonably unnecessary for the attainment of the government interest or purpose sought to be accomplished and are unduly arbitrary or oppressive to the electorate’s exercise of their right of suffrage. The transfer or realignment of the COMELEC’s budget allocation for the December 2022 BSKE to the Executive for its use in its programs or projects cannot validly be accomplished without violating the explicit constitutional prohibition against the transfer of appropriations from one branch of government to another. Accordingly, the postponement of the December 2022 BSKE to augment the Executive’s funds for its programs and projects is not only an unlawful means to attain the legislative object of augmenting the government’s budget for economic and social programs, it also arbitrarily overreaches the exercise of the right of suffrage.
The Supreme Court then directed for the 2023 BSKE to proceed and was held on October 30, 2023. The next election was supposedly set on December 2025. However, President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. signed into law Republic Act No. 12232 on August 13, 2025 setting the term of office for all elected barangay and SK officials to four (4) years with a limit of three (3) consecutive terms for barangay officials and one (1) term for SK officials. The said law postponed the election from December 2025 to the first Monday of November 2026.
Atty. Macalintal again challenged before the Supreme Court RA 12232. In the case of In Re: Macalintal, G.R. Nos. E-02002, E-02010, E-02142 and E-02276, November 11, 2025, the Supreme Court held that the law is constitutional as the Congress has express constitutional authority under Article X, Section 8 of the 1987 Constitution to determine by law the term of office of barangay officials, including the commencement and termination of their terms. Accordingly, laws primarily intended to set or restructure those terms, such as R.A. No. 12232, are not governed by the guidelines applicable to laws whose principal purpose is merely to postpone elections.
RA 12232 is therefore not a postponement law but a term-setting law setting the term of office of Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan officials to four (4) years with Barangay officials eligible for not more than three (3) consecutive terms and SK for one (1) term only.
On September 24, 2026, President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. signed into law Republic Act No. 12326 setting the term of office for elected barangay and SK officials to five (5) years and postponed the November 2026 Elections to November 2028. Again, Atty. Macalintal has filed a petition assailing the constitutionality of RA 12326 arguing that the law is actually postponement of elections in the guise of a term-setting law which is constitutionally proscribed as enunciated in the ruling of the Supreme Court in the first case he filed. It is expected that the Government will argue that this is another term-setting law which is allowed pursuant to the ruling in the second Macalintal case.