Transfer of BSKE funds for oil crisis unconstitutional, senator says

A SENATOR on Monday said delaying the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (BSKE) to realign the polls’ budget to aid the oil crisis is unconstitutional but the funds may be treated as savings to make the process adherent to law.

In a press release, Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo M. Lacson pointed out that the transfer of the P16-billion BSKE funds being eyed for the oil crisis response may only be constitutional if returned to the Bureau of the Treasury.

“Comelec (Commission on Elections) may opt not to spend the funds for the BSKE and declare them as savings to be returned to the Treasury,” Mr. Lacson said.

The proposal was made after Comelec Chairman George Erwin M. Garcia raised the unconstitutionality of the proposal to transfer BSKE funds outside the agency.

“As a constitutional body, we can return unspent funds as savings. That could be a strategy for Congress to consider — rather than transferring the funds, the elections may not proceed and the allocated budget would not be spent,” Mr. Garcia said in a radio interview on Monday.

Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives Alfredo Abelardo B. Benitez previously pushed for the postponement of the BSKE.

In August, President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. signed into law Republic Act No. 12232 which moved the BSKE from Dec. 1, 2025 to Nov. 2 this year to give way for the supposed Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao’s first-ever parliamentary elections last year. — Kaela Patricia B. Gabriel