President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has signed into law the second postponement of barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections in two years, Malacañang confirmed on Sept. 25, 2026. Republic Act No. 12326 moves the polls originally set for Nov. 2, 2026 to the first Monday of November 2028, and stretches the term of barangay and SK officials from four years to five. The signing came just three days after election lawyer Romulo Macalintal and the Legal Network for Truthful Elections publicly asked the president to veto the measure.
Palace Press Officer Claire Castro framed the delay as recognition of barangay officials' frontline role, telling reporters that "our lawmakers and even the president saw how important the roles of our barangay officials are," citing their work in crime prevention and flood mitigation. Marcos himself offered a more pointed defense: "This is not additional time in office. This is additional time to be accountable to people."
That framing sits awkwardly next to what the law actually does. Barangay and SK officials elected in 2023 were due to face voters this November; RA 12326 means they will instead serve roughly two additional years without another election, under a holdover arrangement extended by statute rather than earned at the ballot box. Whatever the accountability rhetoric, the practical effect is exactly what the president said it was not: more time in office, unelected.
Macalintal's objection, filed as a supplemental letter-petition on Sept. 22, went to a more technical but consequential problem than optics. He argued the bill's transitory provision improperly treats a holdover period as an extension of "tenure" — the actual time someone occupies a post — rather than an extension of "term," the fixed period the Constitution and local laws contemplate. "Holdover means an 'extension of tenure,' which is distinct from an extension of the term of office," Macalintal said. He and the Legal Network for Truthful Elections also flagged that the law does not clarify whether the new five-year term count applies retroactively to officials elected in 2023 or only to those who win the 2028 polls — a gap that could leave officials serving what should be their final consecutive term instead ruled to have "completed" an extra term, making them ineligible to run again in 2028. Malacañang's Sept. 25 statement did not address either objection.
The signing also closes the loop on reporting Pulpulitiko carried on Sept. 24, when the Senate transmitted the bill — then Senate Bill 2387, sponsored by Sen. Francis "Chiz" Escudero — to Malacañang. That report noted this was already the second postponement of barangay and SK polls in two years, and quoted Macalintal calling the timing, ahead of the 2028 national elections, no accident. Congress passed the measure without addressing his specific term-versus-tenure argument on the record.
Context
Barangay and SK elections — the level of government closest to ordinary Filipinos, controlling small but locally significant budgets and serving as the first responders in disasters — have now been postponed multiple times since 2023, each time by congressional action rather than through a plebiscite or constitutional amendment. Critics including the Asian Network for Free Elections have separately petitioned against the delay, arguing that repeated postponements erode local accountability at exactly the level of government voters interact with most directly. No court challenge to RA 12326 had been filed as of this report.