The Senate on Tuesday approved on third and final reading a bill seeking to postpone the barangay and SK elections on 5 December 2022 with 17 affirmative votes and two against the postponement.

If the President concurs, the barangay and SK elections will be moved 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."

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.

The term of office of the barangay and SK officials elected in the May 2026 elections and subsequently thereafter shall commence at noon of 30 June next following the elections.

Section 3 of the bill, the "hold over" provision, states that "until their successors shall have been duly elected and qualified, all incumbent barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan officials shall remain in office, unless sooner removed or suspended for cause: Provided that the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan officials who are ex officio members of the Sangguniang bayan, Sangguniang panlungsod, or Sangguniang panlalawigan, as the case may be, shall continue to serve as such members in the sanggunian concerned until the next barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections."

"The amount necessary for the implementation of this Act shall be taken from the appropriations of the Commission on Elections under the General Appropriations Act and/or supplementary appropriations thereafter: Provided, that the additional budget for the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections to be held on the second Monday of December 2023 shall not exceed 15 percent of the budget allocation for the postponed December 5, 2022 barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections," the bill added.

Under the bill, the Commission on Audit shall be directed to submit before Congress an audit report on the budget used for the postponed 5 December 2022 barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections within 90 days from the effectivity of this Act.

"A word of caution too, regarding the budget Comelec has requested for the postponement. Out of the P8.441 billion allotted for the December 2022 Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections, there should be a balance by month's end of roughly P7.583 billion. Comelec claims, however, that they have somehow obligated or disbursed far more. And then they are requesting that should the elections be postponed to December 2023, the amount of PI8.441 billion should be provided in the 2023 budget. That is over 218 percent more than their budget this year. An amount which I think is unmerited," Marcos explained.

'No vote'

Senators Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel III and Risa Hontiveros voted against the passage of the bill.

Pimentel explained that he voted against the postponement of the barangay and SK elections, citing that there is "no compelling reason not to implement the mandate of the law we passed in December 2019."

To recall, Marcos also sponsored the first Act passed by the 18th Congress, postponing the barangay and SK elections from the second Monday of May 2020 to December 2022.

Pimentel also said that the four and a half years term of the current barangay and SK officials is already "not bad," considering that the term of these officials is only three years.

"Covid did not deprive them of time, in fact, it gave them primetime as former president [Rodrigo] Duterte made our barangay officials as first responders in extending the assistance to be given to the population at large," he stressed.

"The election is costly, the democracy has its price but this should be the price — we Filipinos — are willing to pay," he added.