Senator Leila de Lima. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / NINO JESUS ORBETA
MANILA, Philippines — Senator Leila de Lima on Thursday strongly implored the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to “revisit and eliminate” its election campaign permit system, saying it gives “unnecessary burden” to political parties and candidates.
“Comelec cannot restrict the candidates’ activities in the guise of safeguarding against COVID-19 by requiring permits,” De Lima, who is seeking reelection, said in a dispatch from Camp Crame.
“Comelec is…strongly implored to revisit and eliminate this campaign permit system, being the hindrance to the holding of free and fair elections that it currently is, before it unnecessarily constraints the candidates’ right to campaign effectively,” she added.
According to her, the permit requirement “almost amounts to prior restraint in the exercise of a candidate’s constitutional right to free speech.”
“In the context of elections and guaranteed political freedoms, all the more does a permit system in election campaigning becomes repugnant in a democracy,” she said.
Under Comelec Resolution No. 10732, in-person campaign activities would only be allowed if permitted by the Comelec Campaign Committee (CCC) at the regional, provincial and city or municipal levels.
“With the start of the campaign period for national positions, we are now realizing that it is an unnecessary burden to political parties and candidates,” De Lima said.
‘Bureaucratic red tape’
While she recognized that the permit system is being implemented in a bid to prevent the spread of the coronavirus in campaign activities, De Lima said other guidelines under the same Comelec resolution “are sufficient enough to ensure safe election campaigning.”
“Requiring a permit before undertaking any election campaign activity is, to me, more than mere regulation, hence, of dubious validity. Would not mere notification to Comelec of the intended activity suffice, instead of prior authorization?” she said.
The permit system, she stressed, “adds no recognizable safeguard to the guidelines.”
“It can even have the effect (albeit unintended) of denying a candidate’s inherent right to conduct election campaign activities by the addition of what could in practice become a form of bureaucratic red tape, which is the last thing our democratic processes needs during the time of pandemic and limited in-person campaigning,” she added.
The senator, a former justice secretary, also said that under the 1987 Constitution and election laws, the Comelec is not “empowered to require and issue permits in campaign activities, not even during crisis situations like a pandemic.”
“Comelec might have just gone overboard this time in its zeal to reinforce election rules in coping with the pandemic. But even a pandemic should not be a cause to restrict our democracy and our democratic exercises,” she said.
“Elections are too valuable an exercise for the vibrancy of our democracy to not be conducted properly, i.e., bereft of unreasonable restrictions, even in the time of a pandemic,” she added.
De Lima issued this statement after the Comelec earlier announced that the camp of labor leader and presidential aspirant Leody de Guzman failed to secure a permit for their proclamation rally at the Bantayog ng mga Bayani in Quezon City on Tuesday, Feb. 8.
De Guzman’s camp was warned that they will commit an election offense should they push through with the event.
De Guzman’s group still proceeded with their campaign rally. The presidential candidate said their lawyers are already communicating with the Comelec to resolve the matter.
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