MEMBERS of the Senate of the Philippines and the House of Representatives both ratified the bicameral version of a proposal that would postpone the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections (BSKE) set in December 2022.
The Senate announced the approval of the bicameral conference committee report to postpone the BSKE from December 2022 to the last Monday of October 2023 in its official Facebook page on Wednesday night, Sept. 28, 2022.
“The subsequent barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections will be conducted every three years thereafter,” the Senate said.
On the same day, PTV, the government’s official broadcaster, also reported on its official FB page that the House had ratified the bicameral committee report to postpone the BSKE.
A day before both houses voted to approve their bicameral committee reports, the Senate had approved on third and final reading the measure seeking to reschedule the BSKE from December 2022 to December 2023.
With 17 affirmative and two “no” votes, the Senate approved Senate Bill 1306, also known as “An Act Postponing the December 2022 Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) Elections,” which seeks to amend Republic Act (RA) 9164, as amended by RA 9340, RA 10632, RA 10656, RA 10923, RA 10952, and RA 11462.
The House earlier approved on third and final reading its version of the BSKE postponement bill on Sept. 20.
BSKE prep to continue
Hours before both the Senate and the House approved the measure, an official of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) in Cebu City assured that their preparations for the BSKE would continue.
Lawyer Michael Sarno, election officer of Comelec’s Cebu City North District office, told SunStar Cebu Wednesday that their office is now 85 percent ready should the BSKE push through this December.
“As long as the President doesn’t approve the postponement, we will continue with our preparation,” Sarno said. (JKV, IRT, TPM / SunStar Philippines)