Comelec asks over 400 local execs to vacate posts

Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippine — At least 422 elected officials must vacate their posts for failing to file their expenditures in the 2013 national elections, Commission on Elections Chairman Sixto Billantes Jr. said Thursday.

Among the officials who failed to comply with the filing rules of the statement on campaign expenditures were 20 lawmakers, including former president and now Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Rep. Rodolfo Biazon, and local officials such as Governors Vilma Santos of Batangas and ER Ejercito of Laguna.

In a press briefing, Brillantes said these officials, which included 169 from the Liberal Party (LP) and 44 from the National Union Party (NUP) which is allied with the LP should stay out from office until after they have submitted the appropriate Statement of Election Contributions and Expenditure (SOCE).

The Comelec, in a letter, requested Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. and Local Government Secretary Manuel Roxas II to order the 20 representatives and over 400 local officials to step down.

Aside from the LP and NUP candidates, there are also 39 from Nacionalista Party (NP), 33 independents, 31 from Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC), 29 from United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) and 17 from Lakas-CMD who have failed to file their poll expenses.

Brillantes said Comelec signed a Memorandum of Agreement with the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) on March 2012 requiring all local candidates to furnish DILG a copy of certification that they have duly submitted their SOCE.

Without the SOCE, he said, local officials were not supposed to take their oaths of office. With a report from Tina G. Santos, Inquirer

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