A 2023 news report was edited and posted on Facebook claiming that the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections will proceed in December this year after the Supreme Court supposedly declared “unconstitutional” the law that reset the balloting to November 2026. This is false.
Last Aug. 13, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. signed Republic Act No. 12232, postponing the December 2025 BSKE and moved it to Nov. 2, 2026. While there were three petitions filed with the SC challenging the law’s constitutionality, the High Court has yet to decide on the matter.
The spurious video, uploaded on Aug. 28, bore an overlaid text that read:
“Tuloy naba talaga ang BSKE ngayon 2025? (Is the BSKE really pushing through this 2025?)”
In the video, news anchor Ed Lingao can be heard saying:
“Dineklara ng Korte Suprema na unconstitutional ang batas na nagpaliban sa [BSKE]. Ayon sa Korte Suprema, maituturing na grave abuse of discretion ang…mismo ni Pangulong Bongbong Marcos…na [BSKE]. Pero sabi ng Supreme Court, nilabag ng batas na iyan ang kalayaang bumoto. Pero dahil ngayon lamang inilabas ng Korte Suprema ang kanilang desisyon, imposible na pong matuloy pa ang unang schedule. Kaya’t bilang legal practicality, iniutos ng Korte Suprema na ituloy na lamang ang [BSKE]. Ayon naman sa [Commission on Elections], walang magbabago sa kanilang paghahanda sa [BSKE].
(The Supreme Court declared unconstitutional the law that postponed the BSKE. According to the SC, it can be considered grave abuse of discretion…by President Bongbong Marcos himself…BSKE. But the SC said that law violated the freedom to vote. But because the SC only released its decision now, it is already impossible to push through with the original schedule. Therefore, as a matter of legal practicality, the SC ordered that the BSKE just proceed. According to the Comelec, nothing will change in their preparations for the BSKE.)”
A manual keyword search on YouTube showed that the original report was from TV5’s late-night news program Frontline Tonight, published on June 28, 2023. Several important details were omitted in the altered FB video, misleading netizens into believing that BSKE will proceed this year.
In the original report, Lingao said the SC declared “unconstitutional” RA 11935 that reset the BSKE to October 2023 from its initial December 2022 schedule. The news anchor also stated that since the High Court released its decision only in June 2023, “it is already impossible to push through with the original schedule.” Thus, the SC ordered that BSKE proceed in October 2023 “as a matter of legal practicality.”
The fraudulent FB video emerged a day after the SC directed the Senate, the House of Representatives, the Office of the President, and the Commission on Elections to file their comments within a non-extendible period of 10 days from notice on the three pending petitions seeking to declare RA 12232 unconstitutional.
Published by FB user Turtle Town Baao (Suyanbagabaao) (created on June 4, 2025), the edited video has so far been viewed 567,000 times. It has also garnered 5,700 reactions, 327 comments and 1,600 shares as of writing.
