The Senate on Tuesday approved on third and final reading a bill seeking to postpone the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections on 5 December with 17 affirmative votes and two against.

Under Senate Bill 1306, or An Act Postponing the December 2022 Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections, the barangay and SK elections will be moved from December 2022 to the second Monday of December 2023.

"The fact that the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections have been postponed relentlessly through decades merely underlies the unfinished business of deeper issues plaguing both the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan systems," said Senator Imee Marcos, who sponsored the bill.

"Thus, this proposed election postponement is a means to buy us time for a series of measures that the Committee on Electoral Reforms and People's Participation is proposing to Congress. This is merely a preliminary measure to give us time to study and debate the deeper issues confronting the barangay and SK systems under our present law," Marcos added.

After the December 2023 elections, the bill stated that subsequent synchronized elections shall be held on the second Monday of December 2026 and every three years thereafter.

Meanwhile, the term of office of the barangay and SK officials elected in the December 2023 elections shall commence at noon on 1 January next following the elections.