President Rodrigo Duterte (File photo from Malacañang)
MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte urged the Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Tuesday to provide candidates inf the 2022 elections a space where they could campaign safely, citing that there were Filipinos still unvaccinated against COVID-19.
“I’d like to remind the Comelec that you must give the candidates really the space and whatever modality is there because there can never be an election without a campaign,” Duterte said in his taped weekly address, “Talk to the People.”
Duterte likewise said that there were candidates who did not have the machinery for a television campaign and were limited to in-person campaigning.
“Some candidates cannot afford the expense of TV exposure,” he said.
Duterte said that the Comelec must address how election-related assemblies would be conducted amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“That’s Comelec’s problem — if they will allow us to assemble because you cannot campaign by just shouting at one corner,” he said in Filipino.
“You have to have a place where maybe they would limit the attendants or the number of people there. That’s Comelec’s problem,” he added.
Comelec earlier said that the final list of the candidates for the 2022 elections would be released by December.
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