More poll bets face disqualification, says Comelec chief

Comelec Chairperson George Garcia leads the agency’s Operation Baklas along Recto Avenue in Sta. Cruz, Manila. Garcia has issued a stern warning to barangay poll bets who would continue to post campaign materials illegally, saying that Comelec would be willing to remove these posters everyday. (Photo from Gabriel P. Lalu/ INQUIRER.net)

ZAMBOANGA CITY — Hundreds, if not thousands, of candidates for the upcoming barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections (BKSE) are facing disqualification, mainly due to violating election laws against premature campaigning, a top election official said.

Of the 1.41 million candidates for the October 30 polls, more than 7,000 have been issued a “show cause” order for premature campaigning, Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chair George Erwin Garcia said in a recent multisectoral assembly here attended by security forces, imams and priests, and education officials.

Garcia said the poll body had already filed at least 200 cases for disqualification against violators and that the number was still expected to increase in the coming days before the October 30 polls.

Of the 7,000 political candidates issued with a “show cause” order, 30 percent were youth leaders running for SK posts.

“Our youth, it’s very sad [that they’re violating the law]; we filed a show cause order [against them]. You should not vote for those kinds of leaders,” Garcia said.

He warned that if the Comelec had been strictly enforcing the law against premature campaigning, they would be more stringent in enforcing the law against vote-buying.

“Ang babala namin ang pagpatupad ng premature campaigning, mas dobleng ipapatupad ang kahigpitan lalung lalo na sa vote-buying, kontra bigay,” he said.

“Whatever cases of premature campaigning that we are investigating now, we will really push through with the filing of cases. We have already filed disqualification cases against 200 candidates, we expect the number to increase, depending on their response to our show cause order,” Garcia said in Filipino.

He said he expected the number of candidates that would be disqualified to increase before the October 30 barangay and SK elections because of the violations. “Do not ever test the resolve or misjudge the capacity of Comelec to enforce and implement the law,” he said.

“At all costs, we will do that. We would like to ensure an honest, transparent, fair, and credible election, and to do that, we have to uphold the rule of law,” he added.

The Comelec has also identified 246 areas in the country as “areas of serious concern,” but Garcia did not specify them. He said only one province, Negros Oriental, had been placed under Comelec control due to the mass shootout that led to the killing of Negros Oriental Governor Roel Degamo and nine others in March this year.

Garcia met with security forces, Muslim and Christian leaders, and education officials in a multi-sectoral assembly held inside Camp Colonel Romeo Abendan in Barangay Mercedes here, where he led the release of white doves, a symbolic gesture to secure a fair, honest, and transparent barangay and SK elections on October 30.

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