Tarlac bet in hot water for slapping poll officer; Comelec eyes disbarment

Commisioner Rowena Guanzon. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / RICHARD A. REYES

MANILA, Philippines—The Commission on Elections (Comelec) is seeking the disbarment of a candidate for the Tarlac provincial board for slapping an election officer on Saturday during an “Oplan Baklas” operation.

In a tweet over the weekend, Comelec Commissioner Rowena Guanzon said candidate Marty Torralba slapped Election Officer Teddy Mariano during the takedown of illegal campaign posters in Camiling, Tarlac.

Guanzon said she will have Torralba, who claimed to be a lawyer, disbarred and jailed.

“A candidate is detained for slapping our election officer @COMELEC . We will pursue cases against Torralba. Ipakukulong kita,” she wrote.

“The candidate who slapped our @COMELEC EO is Marty Torralba who claims to be a lawyer. We will have him disbarred,’ she added.

A candidate is detained for slapping our election officer @COMELEC . We will pursue cases against Torralba. Ipakukulong kita.

— Rowena Guanzon (@rowena_guanzon) April 7, 2019

The candidate who slapped our @COMELEC EO is Marty Torralba who claims to be a lawyer. We will have him disbarred .

— Rowena Guanzon (@rowena_guanzon) April 7, 2019

In an interview over dzMM on Monday morning, Comelec Spokesperson James Jimenez also condemned the incident and asked candidates to not resort to violence.

He added that candidates who feel that they are being singled out by the “Oplan Baklas” operation may reach out to the poll body and assured them that “Comelec will stand by what’s right.”

“Kung meron akusasyon na pinupuntirya ‘yung kandidato (ng Oplan Baklas) hindi pa rin po tama na magresult sa violence. Mali pa rin yun. Kung may ganung klaseng elemento, kung may pagsisingle out na nagaganap may tamang remedy para diyan (If a candidate feels he is being singled out, it is still not right to resort to violence.  There ae proper remedies for such),” he said.

“Unfortunately what happened there is that the candidate took matters into his own hands, literally and laid hands into a person in authority. Someone who was just doing his job,” he lamented.

Relatively quiet

Apart from the Tarlac incident, the campaign in the local positions is “relatively quiet” so far, Jimenez noted.

The campaign season for local bets officially kicked off last March 29.

“Apart from this unfortunate incident, nandiyan pa rin ‘yung monitoring natin nationwide. And so far maganda naman, relatively tahimik naman. May mga report na merong girian pero wala namang umaabot sa ganitong level (So far, the campaign period is relatively quiet. There have been some reports of disputes but has not reached alarming levels),” Jimenez said. / gsg