Commission on Elections Chairman George Garcia (INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / RICHARD A. REYES)
MANILA, Philippines —The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Wednesday said that it has filed 96 disqualification cases against 2023 barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) election candidates allegedly engaged in premature campaigning.
Comelec Chairman George Garcia said that as of October 10, the Commission issued almost 6,000 show cause orders to candidates accused of early campaigning and filed 96 disqualification cases.
“Sa premature campaigning almost 6,000 yon sa 6,000 almost 1,300 na ang sumasagot sa aming show cause order at as of kahapon, 96 na [nasampahan ng] disqualifying cases,” Garcia said in a press briefing.
(On premature campaigning we recorded about 6,000 cases. 1,300 have responded to our show cause order and as of yesterday, we filed disqualifying cases against 96 bets.)
Garcia likewise vowed to resolve the cases before the elections on October 30.
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“In fact sinimulan na ng division nina Commissioner [Rey] Bulay na i-resolve ang mga kasong yan lahat so ang commitment natin dapat maresolve ang lahat ng mga yan,” Garcia said.
(In fact, Commissioner Bulay’s division has already started to resolve all those cases, so it is our commitment to resolve them all.)
He added that they had already received 60 complaints concerning premature campaigning under Comelec’s Second Division, which Bulay leads.
As early as July, Comelec warned candidates against premature campaigning, which involves hanging posters and handing out flyers ahead of the start of the campaign period on October 19.
Section 80 of the Omnibus Election Code says that “it shall be unlawful for any person, whether or not a voter or candidate, or for any party, or association of persons, to engage in an election campaign or partisan political activity except during the campaign period.”