Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 24) — Congress moved Tuesday to postpone next year’s barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections to May 2023.
In a unanimous decision, the House Committee on Suffrage and Electoral Reforms voted to move the scheduled May 11, 2020 local polls to three years later in line with President Rodrigo Duterte’s wish during his fourth State of the Nation Address.
The House bill mirrors the Senate version, which has also been approved on second reading in the plenary that same afternoon.
If passed, incumbent village and SK officials shall remain in office, unless sooner removed or suspended, until the next elections to be held on the second Monday of May 2023.
This is not the first time that barangay polls were postponed. The barangay and SK elections originally scheulde for May 2016 were suspended twice and finally held on May 14, 2018.
Representatives from the Commission on Elections, the Department of the Interior and Local Government, and federation heads told members of the Senate Committee on Electoral Reforms they want the barangay polls staged a year after the general elections in May 2022, and every three years thereafter.
CNN Philippines Correspondent Xianne Arcangel contributed to this report.
The measure needs to be passed on three readings by both the House and Senate, with differences in the bills resolved by a bicameral body before it can be sent to Malacañang for signing into law.
