Comelec: Slow filing of cases due to manpower shortage

TASK Force Baklas in action. MARIANNE BERMUDEZ/INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) admitted Monday that the process of filing charges against candidates who violated campaign rules was slow because of lack of manpower.

“Kami ang medyo mahina,” Comelec chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. told reporters when asked about his assessment on the first half of the campaign period.

Brillanted noted that only three have been charged so far for violating the rules on illegal postering since the campaign on the national level started last February 12.

Kabataan, Piston, and LPG Marketers Association (LPGMA) partylists have all attended the Comelec en banc in a previous hearing regarding their illegal posters found during Comelec’s first ocular inspection around Manila.

The decision on their case is set to be released soon since it was already being drafted, Brillantes said.

He said that the Comelec’s law department has already sent many notices for the candidates to take down their illegal posters.

“I would have wanted for the sending of notices to be continuous and that the sending of subpoenas to begin … so that it won’t appear we are all noise and no results,” Brillantes said.

He attributed the slow process to their shortage in manpower.

“There is a slow down because of manpower problems,” Brillantes said.

“We cannot improve on it, we just have to move a little bit faster and concentrate on filing charges and sending of subpoenas,” he said.

The law department has been instructed to step up their efforts against all candidates with potential violations, Brillantes said.

Despite the slow filing of charges, Brillantes said that there is a noticeable difference in the amount of election propaganda in this year’s elections compared to previous years.

“You can see the difference now compared to previous elections, major thoroughfares are not as full [of propaganda] unlike in 2010 and 2007,” Brillantes said.

“We may be moving very slowly in the filing of charges, but the fact that we are strict [in enforcing the rules] has already served as a deterrent,” he said.

Brillantes also reiterated that they were not discriminating any party or coalition as alleged by some partylist groups that the Comelec was a puppet of President Benigno Aquino III.