00:00In other news, the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan election is set to push through on November 2026,
00:06following the postponement of its supposed run this December 2025.
00:10This in accordance to the law of President Ferdinand R. Marcus Jr. that he recently signed.
00:16Some question its compliance with the Constitution.
00:19The Supreme Court has a clarification on this, as our Luisa Erispe reports.
00:23The Supreme Court, or SE, has upheld the law rescheduling the Barangay and SK elections to November 2026.
00:33Republic Act No. 12232, signed by President Ferdinand R. Marcus Jr. last August,
00:40extends the term of the Barangay and SK officials from three years to four years.
00:45This moved the original BSKE from December 2025 to the next year of November,
00:51Despite four petitions that questioned the constitutionality of the rescheduling,
00:56the SE dismissed the petitions and believed that the Congress has the authority to set the term for elected officials.
01:03The High Court also ruled that the decision to move the elections next year was purely incidental due to the new term setting.
01:11And the SE believes the law did not violate any of the public's right to vote.
01:16Rather, it simply changed the interval of the elections from every three years to four years.
01:23They also believe this is not a form of discrimination, simply because it is in favor of the BSKE officials.
01:30For the Commission on Elections, this puts an end to speculations on the legalities of the rescheduling of the Barangay and SK elections.
01:38They are now ready to focus on the preparations for next year's elections.
01:43As a matter of fact, they have already started a voter registration as early as last October 20,
01:49and the new registrants is now at 356,421.
01:54Their target is to register 1.4 million up to May 2026.
02:00Luisa Erispe from the National TV Network for a new and better Philippines.
