Postponement The November 2016 barangay and SK elections were postponed
to May 2018, and the following election was scheduled for May 2020, then every three years thereafter.
Postponement to December 2022 On September 30, 2019, the
Senate of the Philippines passed a bill postponing the date of the
barangay and
Sangguniang Kabataan elections to December 5, 2022. The
House of Representatives followed suit on November 4, 2019. Both bills were consolidated into one bill on November 11, 2019. The bill was signed by President
Rodrigo Duterte on December 3, 2019.
Postponement to October 2023 In January 2022, a bill was filed by
Davao Oriental–2nd district representative Joel Almario seeking to postpone this election to 2024. In May 2022, then–presumptive vice president Sara Duterte agreed to postpone the barangay election to 2024 as a cost-saving measure. Outgoing Senate President
Tito Sotto, meanwhile, said in jest that if the barangay elections were postponed again, the barangay officials would have a longer term of office than the
president.
Negros Occidental governor
Eugenio Jose Lacson said that if it were postponed, it should have been postponed for only a year. At the opening of the
19th Congress in late July, Leyte Rep.
Richard Gomez filed a bill postponing the election to 2023, so that the cost of the holding the election, around 8 billion pesos, would have been used elsewhere. A
Manila Times editorial questioned if the government would indeed save money, as the cost of the election would not be spent only on election day, and that the cost was already allocated in the national budget. Weeks later, the
House Committee on Suffrage and Electoral Reforms approved the bill on second reading. COMELEC chairman
George Garcia later said in
Senate Committee on Electoral Reforms and People's Participation hearing that they would need an additional 18 billion pesos for them to hold the elections in December 2023, an increase from 5 billion pesos he earlier shared to the House committee, as it meant to cover increased honoraria for electoral board members. Postponing the elections would also lead to additional voter registration drives, which leads to more people being registered, which meant more ballots had to be printed, more voting centers to be opened, and more election materials to be bought, thus increasing the cost. The House committee then voted on second reading a substitute bill postponing to December 2023. Further House committee hearings had Garcia suggesting to postpone to election to allow more voters to be registered. Representative from Albay Rep.
Edcel Lagman said that "to postpone an election to accommodate more voters is never a reason for postponing an election. To me, this is strange." A representative from the
Department of Budget and Management agreed with Garcia's earlier statement in regards to having a bigger budget if the elections were postponed to 2023. On September 20, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed the bill postponing the election to December 2023 on third reading. Later that week, the Senate passed the bill on a 17–2 vote, with the dissenters solely coming from the minority bloc. On September 28, both chambers voted to ratify the bicameral conference committee version of the bill, largely based on the Senate version of the bill, that postpones the election to October 2023, and sets the term of office of barangay officials to three years. On October 10, President
Bongbong Marcos signed Republic Act No. 11935 which moved the date of barangay elections to the last Monday of October 2023. A week later, election lawyer Romulo Macalintal filed a petition before the
Supreme Court challenging the constitutionality of the said law. He argued
Congress has no power to postpone the barangay elections and to extend the term of village officials, and it can only fix the term through a law. In early March 2023, the commission released the calendar for the election, with the election period beginning at July 3. Later that month, the commission reset the election period, with it beginning now at August 28. During the aftermath of the
Pamplona massacre where
Negros Oriental governor
Roel Degamo was assassinated, several mayors, including Degamo's wife Janice, who is also mayor of
Pamplona, called for the postponement of elections in their province. Separately, five of six provincial governors in the
Bangsamoro also called for the election's postponement, at least after the decommissioning of combatants of the
Moro Islamic Liberation Front after the failed ambush of
Lanao del Sur governor
Mamintal Adiong Jr. In late June 2023, the
Supreme Court struck down Republic Act (RA) 11935, the law postponing the election, as unconstitutional, declaring that "the law unconstitutionally exceeds the bounds of the
Congress' power to legislate." The court allowed the upcoming elections to proceed, but stressed that the currently-serving officials' terms ended on December 31, 2022, as per RA 11462, which had been repealed by RA 11935. The court also ruled that the winning officials would serve only until 2025, with barangay elections being held in that year, and every three years thereafter. In late August, COMELEC chairman
George Garcia said that they were expected to release a decision on postponing elections in Negros Oriental and Bangsamoro in late September, or if it would place any locality under its direct control instead. The COMELEC then announced in September that while elections in Negros Oriental would be held as scheduled, it placed the entire province under COMELEC control.
League leadership The national president of the
Liga ng mga Barangay, Faustino Dy V of
Isabela, resigned in 2019 to run for Congress. He was succeeded by Eden Pineda of Tacloban, and was expected to lead the league into the next elections.
Voter registration Because of these elections' postponement, barangay residents who did not or were unable to register between August 1 and September 30, 2019, had the opportunity to enroll their names in the registration period for the
2022 national elections. The period began on January 20, 2020, and would have ended on September 30, 2021. Registration was suspended in some areas in
Cavite,
Laguna and
Batangas due to the
Taal Volcano eruption, and in
Makilala, Cotabato, due to
an earthquake. On March 10, 2020, the
Commission on Elections (COMELEC) suspended voter registration in the entire Philippines due to the
COVID-19 pandemic in the country. The commission later stated on August 15 that voter registration would resume on September 1 in areas under
"general community quarantine" or "modified general community quarantine". Areas under "enhanced community quarantine" and "modified enhanced community quarantine" had their registrations suspended. On the eve of the end of registration, chairman Sheriff Abas announced that the commission approved extending registration from October 11 to 30 for voters in the Philippines. On the same day, President Duterte signed into law a registration extension for 30 days from when it was made effective. After the
2022 general election was held, the COMELEC began preparing for the barangay election, as a postponement law was yet to be passed. As set by the COMELEC, voter registration resumed from July 4 to 23. With another postponement of the elections which was supposed to be held in December 2022, the voter registration was set from December 12 to January 31, 2023.
Filing of candidacies On March 22, 2023, the COMELEC set the filing of candidacies from August 28 to September 2. COMELEC announced that there were 96,962 candidates for barangay chairperson, 731,682 candidates for Sangguniang Barangay member, 92,774 candidates for Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) chairperson, and 493,069 candidates for SK membership; this was "definitely higher" than
in 2018. The COMELEC disqualified a barangay captain candidate in Barangay Cabas-an,
Aroroy, Masbate due to a previous criminal conviction. The commission also disqualified two SK candidates in Barangay Magtangale,
San Francisco, Surigao del Norte and in Barangay Malag-it,
Calinog, Iloilo for being related to sitting officials in their localities. A candidate for barangay captain in Barangay Pualas,
Don Carlos, Bukidnon was also disqualified for being previously dismissed by the
Ombudsman. President Bongbong Marcos declared election day as a
special non-working holiday. The COMELEC sent show cause orders to about 7,000 candidates, 30% of them running under the Sangguniang Kabataan, for premature campaigning. The commission said it filed 200 disqualification cases, as well.
Automation The COMELEC announced that while the election was manually conducted, three barangays had
automated elections: Barangays Zone II Poblacion and Paliparan III in
Dasmariñas, Cavite, and Pasong Tamo in
Quezon City. The commission intended to have automated barangay elections in 2026.
Early voting hour The COMELEC also announced that early voting for senior citizens and persons with disabilities would be pilot tested in
Muntinlupa and
Naga, Camarines Sur. Under the scheme, qualified voters can vote between 5:00am and 7:00am on election day.
Special Geographic Area plebiscites The
Bangsamoro government planned to hold the plebiscite for the ratification of the bills converting the barangays of the
Special Geographic Area in
Cotabato province into eight new municipalities alongside the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections. However such a plan was considered impossible by the Bangsamoro office of the
Commission on Elections due to time constraints. == Statistics ==