COMMISSION on Elections (Comelec) Chairman George Garcia told the House Committee on Appropriations that the proposed 2026 Comelec budget did not include the postponement of the village and youth council elections.

Comelec: Postponed village, youth elections not in 2026 budget

On Aug. 13, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. signed into law the measure moving the barangay (village) and Sangguniang Kabataan (youth council) elections, or BSKE, to Nov. 2, 2026, from Dec. 1, 2025. The matter is pending at the Supreme Court.

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“We were required to file our comment, but just the same... we did not stop in the preparation for the barangay and SK [elections] just in case,” Garcia said in Filipino and English in the Comelec’s budget briefing on Monday before the committee led by Nueva Ecija 1st District Rep. Mikaela Angela Suansing.

“But our problem is... the postponement of the barangay and SK elections is not in the proposed budget,” he said.

The Department of Budget and Management turned over the 2026 National Expenditure Program (NEP), or the President’s proposed spending plan for the country’s budget of P6.793 trillion for 2026, to the House of Representatives on Aug. 13, 2025.

Garcia said the budget of P11 billion they have would be a continuing appropriation.

However, he said this would not be enough for the additional honoraria for teachers because there would be more precincts to accommodate the additional 4 million voters by July next year.

“The budget given to us for December does not include the new additional voters,” he said. “So all the teachers that were supposed to serve in the barangay and SK [elections] on Dec. 1, if it pushes through, have no additional honoraria of P2,000,” he said.

Suansing asked the Comelec to provide the House committee with information on “how much it would take to stage the BSKE in 2026.”