SC sets 10-day deadline for gov’t comment on BSKE postponement

The government, including the Senate and the House of Representatives, was given 10 days by the Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday to comment on a petition challenging the legality of the new law postponing the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (BSKE).

In an en banc resolution, the SC directed the Senate, the House, Executive Secretary Lucas P. Bersamin, and the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) to respond to the petition filed by election lawyer Romulo B. Macalintal. The court set a non-extendable 10-day period for the submission of their comments.

Filed as G.R. No. E-02002, the petition seeks to declare Republic Act No. 12232 unconstitutional and requests an immediate temporary restraining order (TRO) to halt its implementation. Macalintal argued that the law, titled “An Act Setting the Term of Office of Barangay Officials and Members of the Sangguniang Kabataan,” is a “travesty of suffrage” that violates the people’s right to vote.

He said the measure is “deceptive” and “unwarrantedly imposes” a new election date without explicitly referencing the previously scheduled 1 December 2025 poll. The new date is set for the “first Monday of November 2026,” which Macalintal claims is arbitrary and coincides with the major religious observance of All Souls’ Day.

Macalintal’s petition contends that the law postpones the election without a legitimate government interest, retroactively applies to incumbent officials, and violates the Constitution’s “one subject-one title” rule. He is also urging the SC to order the COMELEC to continue preparations for and hold the BSKE on 1 December 2025, or on a date “reasonably close” to it.