Filipinos may not head to the polls for the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections next year, after the Senate Committee on Local Government approved measures that would set aside the balloting originally scheduled for November 2026.
The polls are currently set for November 2, which happens to fall on All Souls’ Day. Under the bills endorsed by the panel, that date would be pushed back, and the terms of sitting barangay and SK officials would run longer than the four years currently allowed.
Two proposals drove the committee’s action. Senator Imee Marcos filed Senate Bill 2067, which would move the exercise from November 2026 to October 2027. She said the later schedule would ease the financial burden on Filipino families, many of whom travel to the provinces to vote, and would give registered voters more time to transfer their registrations and correct their records.
The second measure, Senate Bill 2387 from Senator Francis Escudero, who chaired Monday’s hearing, reworks the four-year term of barangay and SK officials into a fixed five-year period. It amends Republic Act 12232, the law governing the terms of these local officials. While the practical result is a postponement of the coming polls, Escudero stressed that the term itself is the point of his bill. “The natural effect will, of course, be to postpone the upcoming election, but the subject matter of this bill is fixing the term, not just postponement,” he said.
Escudero argued that longer terms would let barangay units—which he called the frontline of public service—carry out community development, disaster response, and peace and order programs without repeated interruptions from elections. To keep the change fair, his bill counts officials’ existing terms during the transition, a provision meant to prevent sitting officials from gaining an extension.
Several organizations backed the move during the hearing. National Youth Commission representative Eriven Nepomuceno called the measure a “strategic progression to ensure that local officials have sufficient time to implement meaningful community programs and improve public service delivery.” Councilor Jose Maria Rodriguez, speaking for the Liga ng mga Barangay, said the group supports “a consolidated measure fixing the term of office of elected barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan at five years and establishing a definite election schedule corresponding to that term.” Namfrel and the PPCRV likewise supported institutionalizing the five-year term and ending the cycle of postponed polls.
Nothing is final yet. Escudero directed the committee secretariat to prepare a report folding in the amendments and the inputs of resource persons, with completion expected this week ahead of plenary deliberation. He noted the report would reflect proposals raised during the hearing, among them the decoupling question, the Comelec’s points on appropriations and the election date, and the position of the PPCRV and Namfrel that the polls proceed on schedule with the five-year term taking effect afterward.
