IBP: Comelec can’t apply rules to noncandidates

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MANILA, Philippines — The country’s national organization of lawyers said the Commission on Elections (Comelec) could not apply its rules on noncandidates who put up campaign materials in their private properties.

The Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) said the Comelec went “beyond the scope provided by law” when its field personnel took down supposed oversized campaign materials in private properties.

It said the Supreme Court had ruled in the 2015 Diocese of Bacolod v. Comelec case that regulation of election propaganda only applies to candidates, political parties and party list groups.

“As such, Comelec’s dismantling of political posters posted by noncandidates, political party or party list groups is void for going beyond the scope provided by law,” the IBP said in a statement on Sunday.

The lawyers’ group urged the Comelec to “review” its regulations on campaign materials under Resolution No. 10730 “to give primordial respect and importance to the sacrosanct rights to life, liberty and property and to freedom of expression.”

—DONA Z. PAZZIBUGAN

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