PBBM defers BSKE polls

BENGALURU, India — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. indicated he will sign the bill postponing the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Election (BSKE). “I’ll sign it, I’ll sign it,” he told the media delegation in an interview here.

Marcos cited the recently concluded midterm elections and the upcoming Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) polls as prompting the decision to move the BSKE polls.

“We are facing one of the biggest elements here, we just finished the big election, the midterm election, the BARMM is coming up next. We will now also be taking the barangays into account. There are too many, the Comelec is actually saying, we can’t do it. Because it’s not what we need to focus on,” he said.

Marcos pointed out the BARMM elections in October will be the first time the crucial region will elect its leaders.

BARMM pivotal

“We have never had this kind of election at all. In the entire history of the Philippines, there has never been a BARMM parliament elected by the people. That is why it is so important,” he said.

Marcos noted that it would be a significant failure of the peace process if the BARMM election did not push through.

“So it is necessary that the BARMM elections be successful. We will have a barangay election again. It seems like that, almost like that. So we, with a view on the Supreme Court decision that we cannot shorten the term of the barangay officials, we are actually lengthening the term of the barangay officials,” he said.

“So that’s not in conflict. I think the most sensible and the most common sense solution is to postpone,” he added.