CenPEG: BSKE freeze creates beholden execs

The two-year postponement of the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (BSKE) could help the incumbent administration consolidate its forces through patronage so it would dominate the crucial 2028 national polls.

A tighter grip on grassroots networks would bolster support for administration candidates in the 2028 elections, governance expert Prof. Roland G. Simbulan said, adding that the postponement comes at the price of denying voters the right to choose their officials as scheduled under the Constitution.

The law deferring the polls, Republic Act 12326, also extended the term of barangay officials from four to five years after the November 2028 elections, allowing incumbents to serve a total of seven years.

Simbulan, chairperson of the Center for People’s Empowerment and Governance (CenPEG), said the issue goes beyond resetting the electoral calendar, as barangay officials are the government’s closest link to communities and voters.

The CenPEG chief linked the extended tenure directly to the 2028 national elections, saying barangay officials could become part of a broader grassroots political network.

“They will be so happy that their terms are going to be extended without virtue of an election. And that’s why they will be beholden to the administration and give it their full support in the 2028 national elections,” he said.

“Elections are not a mere administrative mechanism. They are actually the means for the people to elect the leaders that they like, to retain the leaders who are doing their job, and to withdraw their support from leaders who are not doing their job,” said Simbulan in an interview on DAILY TRIBUNE’s Straight Talk program.

“Precisely, this extension, especially in the term limits of the barangay officials is going to consolidate grassroots support for the incumbent national officials,” he pointed out.

Simbulan said this could have political consequences because barangays are the country’s basic political unit and a key point of contact between the government and the voters.

Set in motion

The political concerns raised by Simbulan come against a legal backdrop that is anything but straightforward, as the Supreme Court in November 2025 upheld Republic Act 12232 which set four-year terms for barangay and SK officials and moved their elections to November 2026.

In an 8-5-2 ruling, the High Court held that Article X, Section 8 of the Constitution gives Congress the authority to determine the length of barangay officials’ terms, including when a new term begins, provided the period is reasonable and not unduly long.

But that ruling followed a very different decision in 2023, when the SC struck down a law postponing the barangay and SK elections and stressed that the right to vote requires genuine, periodic elections at reasonable intervals.

That history gives the latest postponement another dimension. While Congress has broad authority to set the terms of barangay officials, the courts recognized limits rooted in the voters’ right to periodic elections.

For Simbulan, the repeated changes to the electoral calendar is troubling. He pointed to previous postponements, including in 2016, but he said the latest delay was particularly concerning because preparations for the 2028 polls were already underway.

“What disturbs us is that before this announcement on the postponement was made, the filing of candidacies was already being set in motion and the election schedule was already set for 2 November” Simbulan said.

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) had earlier warned that postponing the polls could result in the loss of substantial resources already spent on the preparations.

Comelec chairperson George Garcia said in August the poll body had already spent about P8 billion for preparations for the 2026 BSKE, including for equipment and other election-related expenses.

“So this postponement is going to affect what they had already set aside for the BSKE,” Simbulan said.

But the cost of the postponement is not limited to the election preparations. There is also a possible effect on how political families build and maintain power at the local level.

Dynasties start with barangays

Simbulan warned that keeping incumbents in office longer could reinforce political families at the grassroots level.

“Political dynasties have shown, historically, that they begin their monopoly of power starting with the barangays. That’s where they start, where members of their families are put up to run for public office. First at the barangay level and then it goes up, you know,” Simbulan explained.

The House of Representatives approved House Bill No. 8389, or the proposed Anti-Political Dynasty Act, on third and final reading in June by a 267-20 vote, with seven abstentions. The measure was transmitted to the Senate on 8 June.

The House version bars relatives within the second degree of consanguinity or affinity from simultaneously running for or holding elective office in the same locality.

However, the measure remains under congressional consideration, giving added relevance to Simbulan’s argument that the barangay level is where political dynasties first establish their local networks.

Simbulan also questioned whether Congress could produce a sufficiently restrictive anti-dynasty law given the presence of political families in the legislature.

“I would say that it is really a conflict of interest as far as Congress is concerned,” he said.

He also cited an estimate that about 80 percent of members of Congress belong to political dynasties, although such estimates vary depending on how a political dynasty is defined and measured.

House protests criticism

The House has rejected the criticism that its measure is too narrow. Committee on Suffrage and Electoral Reforms Chair Zia Alonto Adiong said the bill directly targets political monopolies within localities while preserving the constitutional rights to vote and seek public office.

Simbulan, however, said the constitutional provision on political dynasties should be treated as a mandate rather than a mere policy aspiration.

“That constitutional provision in 1987 was not put there as a declaration. It was actually a command, an order. It’s supposed to be mandatory,” he said.

Thus, any effort to curb political dynasties should begin at the level political families first build their networks: the barangay.

“If this could be amended and improved so that dynasties could be restricted, starting with the local governments, I think this would be a good starting point. Because we can start defeating the dynastic political system at the grassroots level,” Simbulan said.

“Any kind of change like this should not be done by legislative or executive action, but should be done through the voting electorate — mainly through elections,” he said.