The Commission on Elections (Comelec) is preparing to answer the petition filed by an election lawyer questioning the legality of the law rescheduling the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (BSKE) to next year.
“The Comelec is currently working closely with the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) to draft our Comment to the Petition filed by Atty. Romulo Macalintal questioning the constitutionality of RA (Republic Act) 11935, the law postponing the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (BSKE),” Comelec chairman George Erwin Garcia said in a statement on Wednesday.
He said they are also preparing for the Supreme Court’s (SC) oral arguments on the matter which has been scheduled for Friday. The poll body reiterated that they welcome the petition as it will determine who has the power to extend the terms of office of village and youth officials.
“We welcome the abovementioned petition as it gives the High Court the opportunity to resolve, once and for all, the question on whether the power of Congress to extend the term of office of Barangay and SK officials carries with it the power to postpone an election. Or, whether it is the Comelec who has the sole power to postpone the BSKE,” Garcia added.
Garcia said the poll body will abide by the ruling of the SC on the said petition.
Senator Francis Tolentino on Wednesday meanwhile asserted that Congress has the authority to postpone elections, similar to what it did to the elections in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) that was supposed to be held last May.
Tolentino, quoted by a GMA News report, said “Whether Congress can postpone, I think they can postpone. Congress can postpone.”
In 2021, then-President Rodrigo Duterte signed a law postponing the May 2022 elections in BARMM to May 2025.
“Without preempting the decision of the Supreme Court, I would think that that will be a political question and the Supreme Court will refrain from issuing any restraining order—without prejudging what will happen this coming Friday,” Tolentino said.
Tolentino was among the 17 senators who voted for the postponement of the 2022 BSKE.
Senators Imee Marcos and Jinggoy Estrada earlier said that the 1987 Constitution authorizes Congress to set the date for the village and youth council elections.
Marcos, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Electoral Reforms and People’s Participation, is the sponsor of the recently approved law in the Senate, while Estrada is one of the law’s principal authors.
Macalintal’s petition, however, did not include the SK elections. The SC has set the oral arguments on Macalintal’s petition on Friday, October 21.
Human rights lawyer Chel Diokno meanwhile said postponing BSKE anew is tantamount to “disenfranchisement of voters” as it deprives the public of the right to choose their leaders.