BENGALURU, India – President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Friday said he would sign a law that would postpone the December 2025 Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (BSKE) to next year.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of his state visit in India, Marcos said that the Commission on Elections (Comelec) itself pushed for the postponement of BSKE to focus on the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) elections in October.
“I’ll sign it. Because we are facing one of the biggest elements here, we just finished a big election, a midterm election, the BARMM will be next then we will also have the barangay elections,” Marcos said.
“It’s too much. The Comelec actually said: ‘We can’t handle it.’ Because we need to focus on the BARMM elections,” he added.
The President said the upcoming BARMM election “is the first time we have ever 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. So, that is why it is so important,” he said.
Marcos warned that if the BARMM election fails, it would really be a failure on the Bangsamoro peace process.
“That’s why we need to ensure the successful conduct of the BARMM elections 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, then we will have the barangay elections, that’s the same,” Marcos said.
“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. So that’s not in conflict. So I think the most sensible and the most common sense solution is to postpone,” he added.
In June, the Senate and the House of Representatives ratified the bicameral conference committee report setting four-year terms, from the current three-year limit, for BSKE officials.
The ratified bill also proposes that BSKE elections be held on the first Monday of November 2026, instead of on Dec. 1, 2025.
Comelec Chairman George Garcia said the measure was just awaiting the signature of Marcos.
“We have information that it seems there will be no formal ceremony. The bill will just lapse into law by Aug. 14 so the postponement of BSKE will automatically become law,” Garcia said in an earlier interview.
But Garcia said that they would continue to prepare for this year’s BSKE, as he was certain that the law would be questioned before the Supreme Court.
In the event the bill is signed or lapsed into law, the Comelec chief said he saw nothing wrong with that.
“As long as the Comelec is there, we’ll just continue with the preparations. Because someone will question that in the SC,” he added.
Once the postponement bill is signed, the holding of the BSKE will be moved to November 2026.
