The House Committee on Suffrage and Electoral Reforms on Thursday approved its committee recommendation to postpone the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan polls to the first Monday of December next year.
Fourteen legislators, three in person and 11 through Zoom, voted in favor of postponing this year’s elections. The motion was not opposed, while Kabataan Representative Raoul Manuel offered dissension. The committee report was later approved.
“Subsequent synchronized barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections shall be held on the first Monday of December 2026 and every three years after,” the bill read.
Committee chairman and Mountain Province Rep. Maximo Dalog said during the meeting that the committee report would be sent to the House Committee on Appropriations as it has a budget component before sending it to the plenary for further deliberation and approval on the second and third, and final reading.
The committee report would be sent to the House Committee on Appropriations as it has a budget component before being sent to the plenary for additional discussion and approval on the second, third, and final readings, said Mountain Province Representative Maximo Dalog, the committee chairman.
More than 30 bills calling for the suspension of the said elections were filed prior to the committee hearing last week, despite being informed by the Commission on Elections that doing so would result in an additional expense of P5 billion.
The bill’s authors have earlier stressed that the funds reserved for the said elections, which amounts to P8 billion, could be used for more important matters such as the Covid-19 response.