A CAREFUL CHOICE

May 31, 2025 Opinion

The Senate President Chiz Escudero has held in abeyance his earlier request to the House prosecution panel for them to present the articles of impeachment against Vice President Sara Duterte earlier scheduled on June 2 and instead re-scheduled it at 4:00 o’clock in the afternoon of June 11. The postponement of the presentation of the impeachment articles seems to be the concern of the Senate President of several vital bills pending in the Upper Chamber of Congress which are considered as key measures in the legislative agenda of the 19th Congress and considering that they only have six session days left before adjournment.

In his letter to House Speaker Martin Romualdez of the Lower House Escudero pointed out that it is crucial to prioritize the enactment of the said key measures which is ostensibly supportive of the government’s thrust in promoting the welfare of the people. The 12 priority measures are, a) Amendments to the Foreign Investors’ Long-Term Lease Act, b) E-Governance Act, c) Open Access in Data Transmission (Konektadong Pinoy), d) Rationalization of the Mining Fiscal Regime, e) Amendments to the Universal Health Care Act, f) Virology Institute of the Philippines, g) Government Optimization Act, h) Amendments to the Right-of-Way Act, i) Setting the Term of Office of Barangay and SK Officials, j) Judicial Fiscal Autonomy, k) Denatured Alcohol Tax, and l) Anti-POGO Act.

All of these are very important legislative proposals and the Senate President is correct when he decided to delay the impeachment process, at least for a couple of days, and instead do their job of enacting laws that redound to the benefit of the people which they serve.
Now one very important piece of legislative measure that needs an early determination is the proposal to fix the term of Barangay and SK
officials. Previously the Supreme Court decided that the law postponing the holding of the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections (BSKE) from its schedule of December 5, 2022 to the last Monday of October 2023 was unconstitutional. But according to the SC even if the law declaring the postponement was unconstitutional there is a need to proceed with the BSKE on the last Monday of October 2023.

And so on the date abovementioned a new set of Barangay and SK officials were voted into office with an abbreviated term of only two
years, as opposed to a three year term, with another BSKE elections scheduled by the COMELEC on December 1 of this year. Perhaps because of the desire to finally establish a set standard on how long a barangay official should stay in office, considering the previous
situation of having their terms extended several times, at least for some of them, simply by virtue of the passage of a law postponing the BSKE elections, there are now not one but two proposals, one emanating in the Lower House and another from the Upper House of Congress, to fix the term of barangay and SK officials.

In the Lower House speaker Martin Romualdez filed a bill proposing for a six year term for barangay officials and with a maximum of two terms for an equivalent of 12 years. The bill likewise included and considered the extension of the term of the current crop of barangays officials until 2029 before another election is held. On the other hand in November of last year Senator Imee Marcos also sponsored a bill,
Senate Bill No. 2816, which set the term of barangay officials at four years and with a maximum of three terms. The Bill likewise stated that the next regular election for barangay officials shall be on the first Monday of October 2027 and every four years thereafter.

So even with the preparations of the COMELEC now in full blast for the BSKE elections that is supposed to be held this December 1, if the Senate, with six days before its adjournment, is able to muster the passage of the measure to fix the term of barangays officials then the current crop of Punong Barangays, Barangay kagawads, SK Chairmen and their members shall enjoy extra years in their service to their respective communities. If the Bill in the Lower House is followed then the current crop of barangay officials will have until 2029 to serve, while if the version of the Upper House is followed then they have until 2027 to remain in office before another election comes around. Let us hope that with only six days to go Congress can get their heads together and come up with a wise choice on how long a barangay official should remain in office in the service of their constituents. It will be up to them to decide whether it will be a 4 year term or a 6 year term.