The League of Provinces of the Philippines passed a resolution during its 2nd General Assembly last October 18, 2019 at the Manila Hotel supporting the call to postpone the Sangguniang Kabataan elections scheduled on May 11, 2020.
League President and Marinduque Gov. Presbitero J. Velasco Jr. cited the practicality and the cost-effectiveness of postponing the elections for the barangay and SK officials.
“Extending the term of office of our barangay officials, as well as our youth leaders will give them an opportunity to make a headway into implementing the various programs they have planned for their respective constituents. With a five-year term, they will be able to plan out and implement programs that will have greater impact to their communities, rather than those in the near-term,” Gov. Velasco said.
President Duterte during his fourth State of the National Address urged Congress to pass a law postponing the said elections “to rectify the truncated terms of sitting barangay officials” who assumed office just last year. If will be pushed through as scheduled, they will only have a term of two years, shorter than what is mandated by Section 43 of the Local Government Code which is three years.
The Senate and House of Representatives have already approved in final reading the bills postponing the Barangay and SK elections to December 5, 2022. Initially, both the Senate and House proposed for the postponement of the polls to May 2023 but agreed to change over some concerns that the term of the sitting officials will be “too long”.
The Commission on Elections, however, appealed to the Congress to refrain from scheduling the elections on the same year as the national election on May 2022 and that it should be “at least one year before, which is May 2021 or one year after, which is May 2023” as this would divide the personnel in preparing for both elections and that preparation of election paraphernalia, including the printing of ballots, usually takes several months to complete.
The governors during their 2nd General Assembly debated on whether the elections should be postponed to December 2022 or May 2023 but eventually agreed to support the position of Comelec, which is May 8, 2023, as it would be extremely difficult and costly to hold two elections of national in scope in a single year.