BENGALURU, India — President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. confirmed he will sign the bill postponing the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (BSKE).
“I’ll sign it,” he briefly told the Philippine media delegation in an interview.
Marcos said one of the main reasons for the postponement is the recently concluded midterm elections, alongside preparations for the upcoming Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) elections.
"We are facing one of the biggest elements here, we just finished the big election, the midterm election. 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 — the BARMM,” he said.
The President emphasized the importance of the BARMM elections in October, which will be the first time the region will elect its own leaders.
“We have never had this kind of election at all, at all. In the entire history of the Philippines, there has never been a BARMM Parliament elected by the people. So, that is why it is so important,” he said.
Marcos warned that a failure in the parliamentary elections would be a setback to the peace process.
“So it is necessary that the BARMM elections be successful. And that's why we really, really are focusing on that. And again, the local, of course, the local officials are saying, we just finished a local election. 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 explained.
“So that's not in conflict. So I think the most sensible and the most common sense solution is to postpone,” he added.