Six months imprisonment awaits BSKE 2023 candidates found guilty of premature campaigning
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By EDD K. USMAN | Twitter: @edd1819 | Instagram: @bluestar0910 | Facebook: SDN — SciTech and Digital News
TAGUIG CITY, August 28, 2023 (SDN) — “We did not anticipate that many candidates. Our countrymen poured out (into places for filing of Certificate of Candidacy or CoC).”
Lawyer George E. Garcia, the chair of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) blurted this out during a press conference for the 2023 Barangay and Sanggunian Kabataan Elections (BSKE) at the Taguig Convention Hall housed at the new Taguig City Hall Building, which is still under construction.
Comelec chair warns candidates of premature campaigning, fraudulent papers
With him at the media event included Taguig City Mayor Maria Laarni “Lani” L. Cayetano, National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) chief Gen. Jose Melencio Nartatez, Jr., and other Comelec officials.
As the presscon was being held, hundreds of candidates for BSKE were inside the hall to file their CoC, each barangay contingent awaiting at the holding lounge for the call to proceed at the filing area.
Garcia, Cayetano, Nartatez, Southern Police District (SPD) chief Brig. Gen. Roderick Mariano went around the hall to see the filing of CoC proceeding.
The Comelec chief even spoke with some of the candidates. He and Cayetano also stopped at the huge Covenant Signing tarpaulin as they scanned the names of those already affixed their signatures.
At the presscon, Garcia interpreted the huge number of candidates as a sign the BSKE bets “trust the process, they trust the (election) system, and they are interested in the BSKE.”
He lost no time in warning candidates to avoid premature campaigning once they filed their CoC. He said premature campaigning is punishable with a six-month imprisonment.
Candidates after filing their CoC, Garcia stressed, should take down their streamers, those in tricycles, and on social media because they are premature campaigning. “If you filed a CoC, you are already a candidate. We will not hesitate to file a case against you (if you violate the law on premature campaigning).”
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Garcia even encouraged rival candidates for the October 30 BSKE to watch each other and report to the Comelec who violates the law.
The Comelec’s top official also warned SK candidates who falsify their age and submit fraudulent documents. SK candidates, he underscored, should not be more than 24 years old on October 19.
No “hot spots” in Taguig City — Mariano
At 4 o’clock in the morning, he revealed, the candidates already poured out, especially in the National Capital Region (NCR). “To our countrymen, we apologize for the extreme heat.” He said this was a scene in many parts of the country.
He conceded there were a few kinks on the first day of the CoC filing, “but we solved them”.
In relation with this, Cayetano assured Garcia of the Taguig local government’s assistance to Comelec during the elections.
“Definitely, I am here to give assurance that whatever assistance the Comelec needs we will extend to the best of our ability,” the lady mayor emphasized.
While as of until noon of the day of CoC filing Nartatez and Mariano, the two top-ranking officers of the Philippine National Police (PNP) at the press briefing, revealed there were no reports of incidence of violence, both Garcia and Cayetano conceded that BSKE elections are “mainit” (hot).
In an interview, Mariano told SDN — SciTech and Digital News that for the whole of Taguig City, there were no declared “hot spots” in all the local government units’ (LGUs) barangays as of the day of filing of CoC.
The Comelec chair said that BSKE being hot refers to the whole Philippines.
Ex-Makati City barangays’ candidates for BSKE 2023 file CoC in Taguig
“In our history, it is hot, especially that it was postponed several times. You can see the many who filed (CoC) are relatives, neighbors, familiar with each other, and friends. BSKE are truly highly charged compared to regular local and national elections,” Garcia said.
The chief executive of Taguig agreed.
“We always expect BSKE (to be hotly contested) because the area where voters come from has shrunk. Issues are very local with them. It is normal the battle for the barangay is hot, but we trust the voting public because they know the candidates they can choose those whom they know can help them and those whom they believe deserve to lead them in their respective barangay,” Cayetano said.
“It’s in the interest of the government of the entire Philippines the barangay (and SK) elections are conducted with integrity, that everybody adheres to the process, and that all (candidates) will recognize the power of Comelec to hold the elections,” said Cayetano.
Candidates for the BSKE 2023 may file their CoC until September 02.