ILOILO City — More than 4.2 million registered voters in Western Visayas have lost their scheduled chance to choose barangay and youth leaders this November after the elections were pushed to 2028, intensifying calls for the Supreme Court to stop the latest postponement of the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections (BSKE).
Local church and legal leaders are challenging Republic Act (RA) No. 12326, which scrapped the November 2, 2026 polls and rescheduled them to November 2028 while extending the fixed terms of incumbent barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan officials from four years to five years.
Monsignor Meliton Oso, director of the Jaro Archdiocesan Social Action Center (JASAC), threw his support behind the legal challenge, arguing that repeated election postponements deprive citizens of their right to choose their grassroots leaders.
“Nag gwa na kita kag nag siling gin kawat na ang pondo ta sa flood control, kawaton pa gid nila ang aton kinamatarong sa pagboto,” Oso stated.
President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. signed RA 12326, cancelling the scheduled November 2 elections and moving them to November 2028.
The measure also lengthened the fixed terms of incumbent barangay and youth council officials from four years to five years.
It is the third time under the Marcos administration that the BSKE calendar has been altered.
Election lawyer Romulo Macalintal has filed a 26-page petition before the Supreme Court challenging the postponement and seeking the issuance of an immediate Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) or Status Quo Ante Order to stop its implementation.
“We pray nga mag-action sa gilayon ang Supreme Court agud mapadasig naton ang proseso kag maka-election kita sa November 2,” Oso pleaded.
The postponement has major implications in Western Visayas, where Commission on Elections (Comelec) Region 6 data show more than 4.2 million regular and SK voters are affected.
The region’s regular electorate includes 1,649,653 voters in Iloilo, 544,622 in Capiz, 417,387 in Aklan, 404,557 in Antique and 126,024 in Guimaras.
Western Visayas also has 1,104,427 registered SK voters — 572,056 in Iloilo, 195,065 in Capiz, 147,725 in Antique, 146,733 in Aklan and 42,848 in Guimaras.
The postponement covers 3,389 barangays across the region, leaving incumbent barangay and SK officials in office longer than originally scheduled./PN
