MANILA - Three Senate committees have approved a substitute bill seeking the postponement of the 2020 barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections to May 2023.

Senate Bill No. 1043 postpones the May 2020 polls to the second Monday of May 2023 and sets the subsequent barangay and SK electionse every one year following a national and local elections.

The substitute bill was approved by the committees on electoral reforms and people’s participation, local government, and finance, chaired by Sens. Imee Marcos, Francis Tolentino, and Sonny Angara on Sept. 11.

The bill states that incumbent barangay officials shall remain in office in a holdover capacity.

The last barangay elections were held in May 2018 by virtue of a law signed by President Rodrigo Duterte postponing the October 2017 polls.

The same law set the subsequent barangay and SK polls to October 2020, which meant that elected officials would only serve for over two years.

Commission on Elections (Comelec) commissioner Antonio Kho last month appealed that a one-year gap be maintained between the May 2022 national elections and the barangay elections.

Comelec Election and Barangay Affairs Department Director Teopisto Elnas Jr. also said the poll body already started its preparations for a May 2020 barangay polls and it would be better if government would decide soon whether to postpone the elections so that the poll body could stop its preparations.