Electioneering /Comelec injustice

BEHIND THE SCENES
Alfred P. Dizon

Good news for political wannabees vying for elective positions, particularly those with the moolah. Aspirants for elective posts can no longer be liable for premature campaigning after the Supreme Court ruled that that offense has already been removed from the statute book.

Reversing its previous decision disqualifying Santa Monica, Surigao del Norte Mayor Rosalinda Penera, the SC said the Poll Automation Law has already repealed the provision on premature campaigning of the Omnibus Election Code.

SC spokesman Jose Midas Marquez told newsmen the new SC ruling has removed the rule on premature campaigning. “In layman’s language, this means that a candidate is liable for an election offense only for acts done during the campaign period, not before,” read the SC decision.

“The law is clear as daylight – any election offense that may be committed by a candidate under any election law cannot be committed before the start of the campaign period for which he filed his certificate of candidacy.”

Based on the new ruling, infomercials and other advertisements of politicians are now considered as “exercise of freedom of expression,” Marquez said.

Last Sept. 11, Penera was removed from office for premature campaigning after the SC upheld the Commission on Elections.

With this new decision, the SC ordered Penera restored as mayor of Sta. Monica in Surigao del Norte.

In her motion for reconsideration last Oct. 11, Penera reiterated her argument that she could not be disqualified for leading a motorcade in the municipality a day before the official campaign period. “Ms. Penera was not yet a candidate at that time of the incident under section 11 of R.A. 8436 as amended by section 13 of R.A. 9369,” read her motion for reconsideration.

Penera said the Omnibus Election Code has been repealed by the Poll Automation Law as to the definition of a candidate and the rule on disqualification for premature campaigning.
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Related to this, the Commission on elections should extend registration of voters to enable those who were not able to do so exercise their right of suffrage. The Comelec had been saying voters had all the time to register earlier and if they were not able to do so, it is their fault.

The Comelec may want to discipline this Banana Republic’s constituents on virtues of being early but then, that is not its job. The job belongs to other government bodies or Congress which could enact laws to penalize or discipline late registrants.

The Comelec’s job is to ensure that all constituents of voting age would not be denied the right to vote and therefore, should extend registration of voters. Comelec officials and workers only work at least six months every three years before elections and they still don’t want to do the job of entertaining late registrants?
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In the Cordillera, the Comelec’s regional office in Baguio bared the six provinces and one city in the region has 300,000 new voters, exceeding the earlier predicted 200,000 additional voters in the region.

Lawyer Julius Torres, Comelec, regional director told the media the number is expected to increase or decrease depending on the outcome of the ongoing validations being done by the poll body on those who availed of the registration of new voters.

Torres said the poll body expects to come out with the final list of voters for the May, 2010 elections in Abra, Apayao, Benguet, Ifugao, Kalinga, Mountain Province, and Baguio City by the end of this month.

During the May 14, 2007 local elections, Cordillera had 789,837 registered voters that participated in the political exercise. Torres said additional voters are composed of new voters, those who have activated their names, and those who transferred their place where they intend to cast their votes during next year’s first-ever political exercise.

Torres admitted there is still a long way to go in educating old and new voters relative to the implementation of the automated elections, thus, they are trying their best to complete and clean the voter’s list before working on the massive information and education campaign on how to use the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines.
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The regional Comelec office is still awaiting arrival of PCOS machines from its central office so they could go around the region to educate the people on how the machine works.

Torres said once posted in Comelec offices, voters lists are considered properly cleaned and clustered since one precinct can accommodate 1,000 voters instead of the original 200 voters for the previous manual elections.

Is this the reason the Comelec doesn’t want to extend registration of new voters? So they can “cluster” the names of voters come election day? What about those who were disenfranchised of their voting rights on account of this Comelec law not to extend registration of voters? Are their salaries not being paid by the people they disenfranchised from exercising their right to suffrage? Such arrant arrogance and injustice!