Macalintal asks SC to order Comelec to hold barangay, youth polls in May 2023

Veteran election lawyer Romulo Macalintal on Tuesday asked the Supreme Court (SC) to direct the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to prepare for the conduct of the next barangay and youth polls in May 2023.

Macalintal made the pleading in his urgent motion asking the High Court to issue a Temporary Restraining Order or a Status Quo Ante Order on the implementation of the law postponing the December 5 barangay and youth council polls to October 2023.

Macalintal cited Comelec's manifestation filed before the SC that the earliest possible date to hold the barangay and youth council polls now with the passage of the law postponing the same is in May 2023.

"Aware of the competence and wide experience of Comelec in conducting elections, be it manual or automated, and its Chairman being a very experienced election lawyer, petitioner honestly submits that the said election could be held at an earlier date. After all, the Comelec, as of now, had already spent P1 billion of the poll body's P8 billion budget for the said elections since the notices of award were only obligated. More or less five million ballots have been printed," Macalintal said.

"So as not to delay the proceedings in this case, petitioner [Macalintal] would subscribe to Comelec's aforesaid submission and would not challenge the same. There is the compelling need to direct respondent Comelec to resume its preparation for the conduct of the barangay and youth polls to make it logistically possible for the pollbody to hold the said elections in May 2023 in the event that the instant petition is granted," Macalintal added.

GMA News Online asked Comelec Chairman George Garcia for comment but it has yet to receive a reply.

Macalintal also invoked the part of the memorandum of the Office of the Solicitor General headed by Menardo Guevarra which noted the urgency "to remove what had so far become the practice of postponing barangay elections and, in the process extending the term of barangay officials thru piecemeal election postponement legislations which pose an even greater threat to democracy at the grassroots."

Further, Macalintal said that one of the sponsors of the law, Senator Imee Marcos, agreed that repeated postponement of barangay and youth polls are being abused.

"Thus, I asked the SC that pending resolution of my petition the Comelec be directed to resume its timeline of activities and its preparation to hold the elections in May 2023," Macalintal said.

Macalintal earlier questioned the legality of the law postponing the December 2022 polls to next year, saying such repeated postponement is already being used by Congress to extend the term of barangay and youth council officials on a whim. —with a report from Hana Bordey/KG, GMA Integrated News