BACOLOD City – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) here will process and hear 6,310 applications for voter registration filed from August 1 to 10 in connection with the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (BSKE) originally set for December this year.
However, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. recently signed into law Republic Act (RA) No. 12232, which postpones the December 2025 polls to the first Monday of November 2026.
City Election Officer Atty. Kathrina Trinio-Caña said their office will continue to follow the existing Comelec calendar of activities until new guidelines are issued.
According to the calendar, the Election Registration Board (ERB) will convene on August 26 at the Office of the Election Officer on San Juan Street to hear the applications for registration. The board earlier issued a notice of hearing, and oppositions to the applications will be accepted only until August 20.
RA 12232 also provides that subsequent BSKEs will be held every four years, with all elected barangay and SK officials serving a four-year term. The law states that no barangay official may serve more than three consecutive terms in the same position, while SK officials may only serve one term.
Meanwhile, election lawyer Romulo Macalintal has questioned the constitutionality of RA 12232 before the Supreme Court. On August 15, he filed a 34-page petition seeking a temporary restraining order or status quo ante order to halt its implementation.
Macalintal argued that the postponement lacked “sufficiently important, substantial, or compelling reasons to safeguard the right of suffrage,” citing a 2023 Supreme Court ruling that limited the grounds for deferring barangay and SK elections.
“In the case of RA 12232, the 2025 BSKE was sought to be rescheduled not for any important or compelling reason, but merely on account of the perceived shortness of the incumbents’ term of office,” he stressed./PN
