The National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) is opposing proposals to postpone once more the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections (BSKE) scheduled for November 2, purportedly to realign funds towards addressing the global fuel crisis.
A recent Namfrel statement said that proposals to defer the BSKE “represent a grave threat to the foundations of Philippine democracy and must be rejected outright.”
“Elections are not discretionary events to be deferred at the convenience of those in power. They are constitutional obligations and democratic rights that belong to the Filipino people,” the group said.
The barangay polls have already been postponed, from December 1, 2025 to Nov. 2, under Republic Act No. 12232, with the need to focus on the parliamentary elections of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao given as the reason. If successful, this would be the second postponement.
Malacañang has said that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is open to postponing the November BSKE elections again, which would extend the terms of barangay officials across the country.
Namfrel, however, said that diverting the election preparation funds of the Commission on Elections to other government services would be a “deliberate act of institutional sabotage.”
It said that stripping the Comelec of its resources for the purpose of preventing an election from proceeding is a “clear violation of the prohibition of transfer of budgetary funds under Article VI, Section 25 (5) of the Constitution.”
The move also sets a “dangerous precedent for executive overreach into the independence of our electoral body,” it added.
“While we acknowledge that these pressures place genuine burdens on our nation, they do not constitute the kind of extraordinary circumstance that can legally or morally override the people’s right to choose their barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan leaders,” said Namfrel.
“The Philippines has held elections through far graver national crises. Economic hardship is not a democratic emergency. It is, if anything, all the more reason to ensure that communities have accountable, properly elected leadership at the most local level,” it added.
Namfrel stressed that each voter should be given the right to choose their barangay and SK officials “regularly and without interruption.” Extending the term of those officials is “an affront to the constituents those officials are meant to serve,” it added.
The officials pushing for another postponement of the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections may have reason to do so during this global crisis, but watchdogs like Namfrel also have a point, as doing it for the second time certainly leaves a bad taste in the mouth. Is the nation really running out of funds, or are there benefits for politicians to postpone the BSKE further? If elections are going to be pushed back once more, the Filipino people have to be fully informed of its impacts, instead of just promising them more ayuda.*
