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Rhodina Villanueva - The Philippine Star
April 22, 2026 | 12:00am
Hundreds queued at the satellite voters’ registration site inside a mall in Quezon City on August 10, 2025.
The Philippine STAR / Miguel de Guzman
MANILA, Philippines — An election lawyer yesterday slammed the proposal to postpone anew the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections (BSKE) scheduled on Nov. 2 this year.
According to Romulo Macalintal, this plan to delay the BSKE shows that the country’s elected officials are very much into “politicizing” the rights of the people to vote.
“I know that it is politics, and they are making promises so that they will create a good impression to our barangay officials because the 2028 elections is coming up,” Macalintal said in a radio interview.
“They would want to look good and are now looking for allies – that is political strategy. This means political consideration (and) political promises because they make promises if an election is nearing and they will postpone it to extend the term of office of barangay officials,” he added.
Macalintal said these politicians would even later tell village officers, “Oh you see, the elections have been postponed for your benefit.”
He likewise lamented that the President’s allies are unaware that the realignment of funds intended for elections is prohibited.
“The Supreme Court had disallowed them in the case of Macalintal vs Comelec and that the President was told that you can’t realign the budget,” Macalintal said.
Further, the election law expert said the BSKE postponement would mean the people are being fooled regarding their right to vote.
“This is deception of the people and there are a number of lawmakers or politicians who would want to gain favor for the coming 2028 elections,” Macalintal said.
He also said using the Middle East conflict as reason for the postponement of elections is unacceptable.
“They are saying there is crisis in the Middle East but we are not part of that. It would not affect our elections. Is there war in the country? Are people dying? Is there violence all over? Is there civil war? There is none,” Macalintal pointed out.
