Local absentee voting registration ongoing; deadline up March 7

By Liza Agoot

 

BAGUIO CITY – The Commission on Elections (Comelec)-Baguio urged eligible individuals to avail of local absentee voting (LAV) option.

    Comelec-Baguio Election Officer John Paul Martin said LAV is a privilege for police officers, soldiers, teachers, other government employees and members of the media who cannot vote on May 12.

    Those who want to avail of LAV may apply either at the Comelec central office in Manila or local Comelec offices until March 7. 

    LAV is allowed for national positions only. Voting period will be on April 28 to 30 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

“This is an initiative of the Comelec to allow them to participate in the election even if they have an election duty to render and they cannot cast their votes at their respective precincts,” he said.

    He cited as example a police officer who resides in Abra but will be assigned to Mindanao for election duty.

    “The policeman can still vote through the LAV and exercise his right to vote,” Martin said.

    LAV participation is not just exercising the constitutional right but will keep the voter’s record active, he added.

    The ballots will be sealed and forwarded to the LAV division for the feeding of the ballots to the automatic counting machine.

“    It will be a separate canvassing and separate voting process because they have a different ballot from the regular voters,” Martin said. -- PNA

 

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Issuance of notices vs illegal poll materials up

By Ferdinand Patinio

 

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Tuesday announced that it started issuing notices to remove illegal campaign materials of candidates running for national positions Wednesday as part of its “Oplan Baklas.”

In a forum in Manila, Comelec Chairperson George Garcia said sanctions await winning senatorial candidates and party-list groups in the May 12 polls who would ignore these notices.

“There are about 7,500 issues of show cause orders and non-proclamation of winners in barangay (elections). So if they want to suffer the same fate, it's okay, don't remove illegal campaign materials,” he said, referring to the candidates in the 2023 Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan who were sanctioned for the same offense.

“We have already announced the addresses of the candidates’ headquarters so that the letters will be forwarded there.”

Aspirants and party-list organizations were given three days to remove their illegally posted campaign materials.

"If they will not remove (these campaign materials) in three days, we will sue them. We will just write them a letter of disqualification due to election offense, one to six years imprisonment,” Garcia said.

He added that they would no longer accept the reason that the questioned posters or campaign materials were posted or produced by their political rivals.

“We will always presume that the face on the posters, we will presume that they put it up. Therefore, we will issue them with show cause orders and then the notice to remove campaign materials,” Garcia said.

“We can suspend the proclamation, and even if they assume (office), we can remove them. We have removed governors, city mayors because we saw that there was a violation of the election laws.”

He also called on the public to flood them with pictures of illegal campaign posters through their social media accounts so the Comelec could inform its local poll body offices and take action.

Considered unlawful campaign materials are individual posters, billboards, posters, and tarpaulins exceeding 2 ft. by 3 ft.; collage-like posters exceeding 2 ft. by 3 ft.; and posters with single letters of names, when assembled to form a size exceeding 2 ft. by 3 ft.

Also prohibited are campaign materials that are not in designated common poster areas, which are plazas, markets, barangay centers, and similar places, where posters may be readily seen or read and with the heaviest pedestrian and/or vehicular traffic in the city or municipality.

Garcia also reported that they collected so many paper materials on the first day of the campaign period for national positions.

“The Comelec has collected so many papers today that we cannot destroy or we will be violating election laws. We will properly account what we have collected and dissolve them per region or province,” he said.

He described the first day of the campaign for national positions as “very good,” noting that there were no huge banners along EDSA and other major thoroughfares.

The campaign period for senatorial bets and party-list groups will end on May 10. -- PNA

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Comelec, PNP check 10 Abra towns for poll violence, rivalry

 By Liza Agoot

 

BAGUIO CITY – The Commission on Elections - Cordillera Administrative Region and police are closely monitoring Abra, historically an area of concern during elections.

Nine towns in Abra have been placed under yellow category while one is under orange category.

A yellow category means historical record of intense political rivalry while an orange category also has intense political rivalry and possible threats due to the presence of communist terrorist groups.

“We are looking into it together with the law enforcement agencies to prevent escalation of political rivalries,” Comelec-CAR Assistant Director Vanessa Roncal said Monday.

Comelec has teamed-up with the Armed Forces of the Philippines and Philippine National Police in monitoring yellow towns Bangued, Dolores, Lagangilang, Licuan Baay, Malibcong, Penarrubia, Pidigan, Pilar and Tayum; and lone orange town Bucay.

Lubuagan in the province of Kalinga is also under the yellow category.

“Binabantayan natin (We are watching it) and if there is a need to deploy more law enforcement agents to prevent problems, then we will do it,” she said.

Police Regional Office-Cordillera chief Brig. Gen. David Peredo said in an interview that “in the past election, we had dialogues with opposing political parties for possible understanding."

He said there will also be peace covenants and law enforcement operations as possible measures, along with continuous monitoring of private armed groups.

“There used to be nine groups (but) now we (only) have four. But we continue to monitor them even if they have been dismantled. Right now, we do not see any actions from them but we do not know in the coming days so we have to be on guard,” he said. -- PNA

 

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‘Final and executory’ : Comelec denies petition vs Gov Lacwasan’s candidacy

By Gina Dizon

The Commission on Elections ruled “final and executory” denying the petition opposing certificate of candidacy of Gov.  Bonifacio C. Lacwasan Jr for the position of governor of Mountain Province in the May 12,2025 elections.

Following the motion for reconsideration filed by petitioner Johnny Lausan, the Comelec en banc in their Jan. 15, 2025 decision, ruled their resolution dated Jan. 7, 2025 was ‘final and executory in accordance with rules of procedure that a decision or resolution  of the Comelec en banc in special actions shall become final and executory after five days from receipt of resolution  unless  restrained by the Supreme Court.”

The Comelec noted no restraining order was issued by the Supreme Court within five days from receipt of the parties that would preclude the Jan. 7, 2025 resolution by the Comelec en banc being ‘final and executory’ under Comelec rules on procedure and resolution 11046.

 The MR filed by petitioner Lausan was denied by the Comelec en banc that affirmed the ruling of the Comelec First Division having denied said motion for lack of merit.

Earlier, petitioner Lausan in his complaint to the First Division December last year claimed that Lacwasan violated the three-term limit rule on filing of candidacy.

The First Division junked the petition ruling that Lacwasan did not violate the 3-term-limit in their Dec. 11,2024 ruling.

“Clearly, Lacwasan was appointed and not elected as governor of Mountain Province,” the First Division stated in their resolution.

A consequent ruling of the Comelec en banc affirmed the decision of the First Division on Jan.  7, 2025.

 Lausan in his petition claimed that Lacwasan violated the 3-term limit rule claiming that  at the end of  the 2022-2025  term, Lacwasan fully served three terms and barred from running again for the fourth time.

But the Comelec en banc ruled: “We find no cogent reason to depart from the assailed resolution of the Commission (First Division)”.

The First Division of the Comelec ruled Lacwasan was not subject to the 3-term limit rule since he assumed his position as vice governor of Mountain Province and served in that capacity in the full 2016-2019 term.

“Clearly, Lacwasan was appointed and not elected as governor of Mountain Province,” the First Division stated in their ruling dated Jan. 7,2025.

Lacwasan assumed the gubernatorial post till June 30, 2019 following the death of the late Gov. Leonard Mayaen in March 31,2016.

He was subsequently elected and won in two consecutive terms as provincial governor in the 2019 and 2022 elections.

The First Division noted Supreme Court jurisprudence citing two requisites for the applicability of the disqualification under the three-term limit.

One, the official concerned has been elected for three consecutive terms in the same local government post; and second, the official concerned has fully served three consecutive terms.

The Comelec in its ruling  also noted  section 8 of  the 1987 Constitution which stated: “The term of office of elective local officials, except barangay officials, which shall be determined by law, shall be three years and no such official shall serve for more than three consecutive terms. Voluntary renunciation of the office for any length of time shall not be considered as an interruption in the continuity of his service for the full term for which he was elected.”

The Comelec clarified that Lacwasan “did not lose title of the Office of the Vice Governor when he was appointed as Acting Governor in 2016 as he was merely prevented from exercising the functions of his office by reason of his assumption of the post of Governor as provided for and by operation of law” when a permanent vacancy arose due to the untimely death of former winning Gov. Mayaen in the 2016 elections.

The petitioner claimed Lacwasan in his COC constituted false material representation because  he (Lacwasan)  is ineligible on account of the three term limit rule.

The Comelec en banc ruled the motion for reconsideration had no valid ground and that the assailed resolution was neither without sufficient basis found in the records nor of the law.

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