MANILA, Philippines — A bill that seeks to extend the term of elected officials under the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) system has been approved by the House of Representatives on second reading.

House Bill No. 11287 or the proposals to amend Republic Act No. 7160 or the Local Government Code of 1991 was approved on Monday through viva voce or voice voting.

READ: Romualdez, House solons propose 6-yr term for barangay, SK execs

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If enacted, Section 42 of Republic Act No. 7160 will be amended to hold the next Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections by the second Monday of May 2029, while the elected barangay official will now serve six terms, instead of just three.

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READ: Bill to extend barangay officials’ term filed in Senate

The approval on second reading came almost a week after the House committee on local government, headed by Negros Oriental Rep. Manuel Sagarbarria, approved the proposed measure.

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However, Kabataan party-list Rep. Raoul Manuel questioned the intentions of the bill, asking that if the reason for the term extension is the lack of time for barangay officials to do their jobs, are House lawmakers also remiss in their duties as they also have three-year terms.

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“I’d like to pose this point from a devil’s advocate point of view Mr. Speaker, because for example, we in the House of Representatives, we only have three-year terms. So does this mean that we also cannot do anything meaningful especially with Congress is composed of different members, and our mandate is national,” Manuel said.

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“So if the barangay and SK officials which are more versed on the ground, if we think that they cannot fulfill much in that short amount of time, are we like that too in Congress, Mr. Speaker? Because the logic behind is if we need longer terms to serve the people better at the barangay level, the next logical step is we in Congress would have longer terms too. That will be the implication,” he added.

Assistant Majority Leader and Oriental Mindoro Rep. Arnan Panaligan however noted that the functions of the two sets of officials—those in the barangay and those in the House—differ largely.

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“Well Mr. Speaker I do not agree with that, it seems like we are comparing apples to oranges, we are different in Congress since we have the resources here. We have to admit that there is a different level with officials here in Congress than those in the barangay,” he said.

The proposal to extend the terms of barangay officials gets support from no less than House Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, as he and other ranking lawmakers announced last August 2024 that they have proposed setting a fixed term of six years for the barangay officials.

According to Romualdez, this is meant to ensure continuity and projects and to protect barangay officials from politicking.

At the Senate, Romualdez’s cousin Senator Imee Marcos also filed a bill seeking to extend the term of barangay officials, as the short terms supposedly hinder community leaders from “formulating, developing, and implementing” their own policies and projects.

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Like Romualdez’s proposaljlbet, the term of barangay officials will also be set to six years.

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