IN a bid to minimize risks of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) transmission, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) is looking at making changes in the schedule of filing of Certificates of Candidacy (COCs) for the May 2022 national and local elections.
In a virtual press briefing, Elections Executive Director Bartolome Sinocruz said they are now considering holding separate days for candidates running for single elective positions and multi elective posts.
“Meaning, there will be certain number of days for single elective positions, and there will be several number of days for multi elective positions,” Sinocruz said.
Sinocruz explained that the single elective positions are posts where there is only one winner, such as mayors, governors, president, and vice president.
On the other hand, the multi elective positions are those with several winners per post, such as senators, city/municipal councilors, and provincial board members.
“For example, candidates for mayor and vice mayor may be allocated 2 to 3 days, while the city councilors will have the rest of the days,” said Sinocruz.
The poll official said the proposed changes are due to the continued threat of the COVID-19 pandemic.
He said the Comelec is putting premium on ensuring the health and safety of everyone in the COC filing venues.
“The idea really is to lessen the number of aspirants going to the venue to file COC so we can strictly observe social distancing,” said Sinocruz.
The Comelec en banc has set the COC filing period for the May 2022 national and local polls from October 1 to 8, 2021.
For the next elections, elective national positions include 1 for president, 1 for vice president, 12 for senators, 249 for legislative district representatives, and 62 for party-list representatives.
For local posts, the elective posts are 81 for governors, 81 for vice governors, 780 provincial board members, 146 city mayors, 146 city vice mayors, 1,644 city councilors, 1,488 municipal mayors, 1,488 municipal vice mayors, and 11,908 municipal councilors.
In the past, COC filing activities have fiesta-like atmosphere with aspirants bringing along their family members, friends, and even supporters to the venue.
COC filing also does not have any specific days designated to particular posts as aspirants may file their COCs any day within the filing period.
