Macalintal made the pleading in his urgent motion asking the High Court to issue a Temporary Restraining Order or a Status Quo Ante Order on the implementation of the law postponing the December 5 barangay and youth council polls to October 2023.
"Aware of the competence and wide experience of Comelec in conducting elections, be it manual or automated, and its Chairman being a very experienced election lawyer, petitioner honestly submits that the said election could be held at an earlier date. After all, the Comelec, as of now, had already spent P1 billion of the poll body's P8 billion budget for the said elections since the notices of award were only obligated.
Macalintal also invoked the part of the memorandum of the Office of the Solicitor General headed by Menardo Guevarra which noted the urgency "to remove what had so far become the practice of postponing barangay elections and, in the process extending the term of barangay officials thru piecemeal election postponement legislations which pose an even greater threat to democracy at the grassroots.