Namfrel opposes postponining the 2026 Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections and extending officials’ terms to five years
The National Citizens' Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) expresses its disappointment and dismay over the signing by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. of Republic Act No. 12326 on September 24, 2026 — a law that postpones the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (BSKE) from November 2, 2026 to the second Monday of November 2028, and fixes the term of barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) officials at five years. The law was made public only on September 25, mere days before the scheduled filing of certificates of candidacy on September 28.
Namfrel had, on two separate occasions this year — April 17 and August 5, 2026 — publicly and unequivocally called on Congress and the Executive to reject exactly this outcome. That these repeated warnings went unheeded is deeply troubling. That the law was rushed to enactment just ahead of the filing period is more troubling still.
A fresh mandate, not more time in office, is what governance requires
“The additional time in office is additional time to serve,” the President said in signing RA 12326, calling on incumbent officials to use the extension to improve service delivery, finish ongoing programs, and better attend to the needs of their communities. Namfrel respectfully but firmly rejects this reasoning. A government genuinely intent on addressing the crises it cites — fiscal pressure, the need for efficient and accountable frontline service delivery — should be seeking a renewed and fresh mandate for barangay leadership, not extending the tenure of officials without a single vote cast in their favor.
It is the electorate's fresh mandate, not additional years in an unelected extension of office, that is and must remain at the very heart of any genuine effort to improve the delivery of projects and services to communities. Accountability is renewed at the ballot box, not by legislative decree. An official who has not faced the electorate in three additional years has no fresh basis to claim the confidence of the community he or she governs.
This is not a simple postponement — it is a three-year term extension by legislative fiat
Election lawyer Romulo Macalintal, who has indicated he will challenge RA 12326 before the Supreme Court, correctly frames this measure as “a massive three-year total postponement of the BSKE and a corresponding three-year unauthorized term extension for incumbent officials.”
Namfrel shares this view.
The President's characterization that barangay officials will still be considered to have “served one term” obscures the reality that these officials will remain in their posts for three years beyond their electoral mandate, governing not by the will of the people but, in Atty. Macalintal's words, through “legislative appointment rather than the ballot.”
This is precisely the danger Namfrel warned against in its April and August statements: that regular, periodic elections are not administrative conveniences to be deferred at the discretion of those already in power, but constitutional obligations and democratic rights belonging to the Filipino people.
As Namfrel has consistently pointed out, the Supreme Court in Macalintal v. Comelec (G.R. No. 263590, June 27, 2023) was explicit that standard administrative concerns — budget reallocations and general economic pressures among them — do not rise to the level of compelling, extraordinary justification required to postpone a constitutionally mandated election. Fiscal strain and global economic headwinds, however real, do not meet that threshold. Namfrel's position on this point has not changed: economic hardship is, if anything, all the more reason to ensure accountable, freshly-mandated leadership at the level of government closest to the people — not less.
The Ombudsman's own diagnosis points in the opposite direction
Notably, this term extension runs directly counter to the position of the Philippine Ombudsman, Jesus Crispin Remulla, who has publicly and repeatedly criticized the barangay system as a breeding ground for corruption. Ombudsman Remulla has observed that barangay officials, down to SK councilors, effectively control their own discretionary funds — describing it plainly as their own “pork barrel,” particularly in wealthier cities and municipalities.
Commenting specifically on proposals to extend barangay and SK terms from four to five years, the Ombudsman warned that “5 years is too long when the Kapitan is very bad,” noting that abusive or corrupt local officials actively discourage business investment at the barangay level. Rather than a longer term, the Ombudsman has called for a shorter term and a higher standard for barangay candidates and officials — proposing, among other reforms, that barangay chairpersons, treasurers, and administrators be required to hold Civil Service eligibility, precisely because frontline government positions demand higher professional and ethical standards, not fewer checks on tenure.
RA 12326 does the opposite of what the government's own anti-corruption watchdog has recommended: it extends terms rather than shortening them, and it does so without imposing any corresponding heightened qualification, vetting, or accountability standard on the officials who benefit from that extension. Namfrel finds this contradiction impossible to reconcile with any genuine claim that the law serves good governance.
The Numbers Do Not Support the Government's Narrative
COMELEC has already spent approximately ₱8 billion in preparation for the November 2, 2026 BSKE — funds now effectively wasted, though ballots and materials will reportedly be kept in storage. The remaining ₱11 billion originally allotted for the village elections will instead be redirected toward preparations for the 2028 national and local elections. This is precisely the kind of budgetary diversion NAMFREL warned against in its April 17, 2026 statement: the shifting of COMELEC's constitutionally dedicated electoral funds toward other priorities, undertaken for the explicit effect of preventing a constitutionally mandated election from proceeding on schedule. A one-time fiscal saving does not offset the lasting institutional cost of an electorate denied its right to vote for three additional years.
A Timing That Confirms Our Earlier Warning
In its August 5, 2026 statement opposing House Bill No. 10376, NAMFREL flagged that moving the BSKE to November 2028 would place it on the same calendar as the next national and local elections, and that this alignment invited legitimate questions about political motive rather than genuine fiscal necessity. That concern has now materialized as law. Barangay officials are influential mobilizers in national campaigns; synchronizing their continued incumbency with the 2028 national and local elections, rather than holding the BSKE separately and on time, only deepens the suspicion that this measure serves political convenience far more than it serves the public good NAMFREL and other election watchdogs and constitutional experts had already voiced.
A Pattern That Must Stop
Barangay and SK elections are already the most frequently postponed democratic exercises in the country's history. Each additional deferral normalizes the practice of legislating around the electorate rather than submitting to it, and makes the next postponement easier to justify. RA 12326 does not merely repeat this pattern — at three years, it is the longest single postponement the BSKE has yet suffered. The barangay and SK officials currently holding office were elected for a defined term, and for no longer; they now continue to serve on borrowed time that the electorate never granted them.
NAMFREL's Position and Next Steps
NAMFREL will support and join the effort of individuals and groups moving to question the constitutionality of RA 12326. Election watchdog groups have expressed its intent to bring the matter before the Supreme Court, and election lawyers have likewise announced the filing of a Petition for Certiorari, arguing that the law “strikes at the heart of our democracy and reflects a grave abuse of discretion.” NAMFREL stands with these efforts and encourages other citizens, civil society organizations, and members of the election-monitoring community to do the same.
The rights and interests of the electorate must always take primacy over administrative or political convenience. NAMFREL calls on the Commission on Elections to maintain readiness to conduct the BSKE without further delay once the courts have spoken, and reiterates the position it has held since April: the ballot must be cast on time. The Filipino people, particularly the millions of voters in every barangay across the country, have waited long enough.
-National Citizens' Movement for Free Elections
