The Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (BSKE) originally scheduled on December 2022 is now officially moved to October 2023 as President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos signed into law the Republic Act 11935.
Signed Monday, October 10, the measure mandates the conduct of the BSKE on the “last Monday of October 2023 and every three years thereafter”.
The law also provides that the term of office of the Barangay and SK officials will commence at noon of November 30 following their election.
This is the 4th time that the BSKE has been postponed since 2016.
Meanwhile, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) vowed to follow the law and continue their preparations for the BSKE.
“For now, we shall continue with our preparations for the BSKE. We hope that hopefuls for barangay and SK positions and the voting public would also take this time to prepare and reflect on their rights and duties which they will exercise through their ballots and eventual offices,” Comelec chair George Erwin Garcia said in a statement.
Garcia also said that they will revisit existing and planned procurement contracts related to the BSKE.
The poll body has earlier manifested that they preferred to have the BSKE be held as planned to avoid the additional costs of the postponement.
Based on Comelec, the postponement in 2023 would cost P18 billion from their budget, instead of the P8.4 billion projected cost if the BSKE were to be held in December this year
