Comelec headquarters in Intramuros, Manila. INQUIRER FILES
MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has initiated disqualification (DQ) cases against 92 barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) candidates for campaigning before the official campaign period, which is from Oct. 19 to 28.
About 200 more candidates may be similarly charged while at least 4,500 others have to formally explain to Comelec why their posters were put up before the campaign period.
Election watchdogs have commended Comelec’s crackdown against premature campaigning in the Oct. 30 barangay and SK elections.
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“We support this effort of the Comelec. It is right that we show candidates that no one is above the law and that everyone should play by the rules,” said Rona Ann Caritos, executive director of the Legal Network for Truthful Elections (Lente).
“We commend the Comelec for changing its attitude to make elections fair, competitive and to level the playing field,” said Eric Alvia, secretary general of the National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel).
Aside from premature campaigning, the Comelec has also started filing DQ cases for vote buying. To date, five candidates have been charged with vote buying. Both Lente and Namfrel said they believed Comelec could decide on the disqualification cases before the Oct. 30 elections.