Newsbriefs

COMELEC PERSONNEL ON FIELD AMID POWER PROBLEMS

THE Cebu City staffers of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) will be assigned to do more to field work while power has yet to be restored in their leased offices.

Comelec Cebu City north district officer Marchel Sarno said office personnel will be sent to barangay Busay today to distribute Voters Identification Cards and voters certification to newly registered voters.

Others, he said, will be sent out to document violations made against the Omnibus Election Code especially the display of oversized campaign materials that exceeded the two by three feet size allowed by Comelec.

Sarno said they will forward the photos to their Comelec central office for evaluation. “We don’t have any option but to be creative,” he said.

Sarno said Cebu City Comelec personnel have been unable to do any work after the third floor power room of the WDC building near the Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral caught fire on Maunday Thursday.

Power has not been restored to date at the two Comelec leased offices and even the Comelec regional office located on the ground floor of the three-storey building.

“The problem is not the lack of a generator sets but the wirings which connect to our offices,” Sarno said.

He said the building management assured them they will restore power in their offices within the week. Correspondent Edison delos Angeles

PABLO JOHN DISAPPOINTED OVER PNOY’S REJECTION OF HEIGHT BILL

REP. Pablo John Garcia of Cebu’s 3rd district voiced disappointment over President Benigno Aquino III’s rejection of a bill he sponsored that sought to revoke the height requirement for police recruits.

“The bill would have leveled the playing field for a lot of applicants for the police, fire and jail service who are otherwise qualified except for height requirement,” he said in a press statement.

President Aquino vetoed the bill, saying a waiver already exists of the height requirement on certain conditions.

The Palace said the rejection shouldn’t be seen as a discrimination against those who fail to meet the PNP height requirements. Garcia said during the hearing on the bill, it was shown that there is absolutely no scientific or rational basis linking height to capability and performance.

“Even the PNP and BJMP admitted that. BFP was fully in support of the bill,” he said.

The congressman said the most important skills as far as police officers are concerned such as investigative skills, crime solution and community relations, have absolutely nothing to do with height.

“The veto would perpetuate the discrimination against shorter persons which has absolutely no place in the 21st century,” he said.

Sen. Gregorio Honasan said he intends to fight the President’s “ill-advised” veto on the bill to repeal the height requirement for police officers, jail guards, and firefighters.

Under present rules, the minimum height requirement to get into the PNP, BFP, or BJMP is 5 feet 4 inches for men, and 5 feet, 2 inches for women. With an Inquirer report