Comelec warns poll hopefuls: Don’t join political parties

BACOLOD CITY—Elections Commissioner Rowena Guanzon has warned candidates for barangay posts against misrepresentation when filing their certificates of candidacy (COC), especially on matters concerning their affiliation with political parties.

Guanzon said Item No. 10 on the COC required candidates to sign under oath the statement, “I am not a member of any political party, group or coalition of political parties.”

“I am cautioning that they have to answer truthfully, because if they don’t, there will be consequences,” she said.

Membership of a barangay candidate in a political party under Section 51 of the Omnibus Election Code (OEC) is a prohibited act, and shall be prosecuted and penalized in accordance with the provisions of the OEC as a criminal offense, Guanzon said.

The barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections should be nonpartisan, she said.

“I am asking all elected officials, especially the mayors, to keep their hands off the barangay elections because there is a law that it should be a nonpartisan election,” she said.

The filing of the COCs for the May 14 polls will be from April 14 to 20.

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) also advised voters to be vigilant against prospective candidates in next month’s SK polls who may have relatives who are incumbent elected officials.

“We need our voters to be vigilant. If someone knows that a candidate in the youth polls has a relative who is an elected official, there’s no stopping them from questioning the candidate’s eligibility,” Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez said.

The law provides that an official of the youth council “must not be related within the second civil degree of consanguinity or affinity to any incumbent elected national official or to any incumbent elected regional, provincial, city, municipal, or barangay official in the locality where he or she seeks to be elected.”