AHEAD of the start of the campaign period for local bets, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) yesterday urged local government leaders seeking reelection to take down their images from projects that have their photos.
In a media forum in Manila, Comelec chairman George Garcia said photos of local officials in local government projects can also be considered as propaganda materials beginning March 28.
“In such instances, they won’t be simple announcement of local projects but can be considered as campaign materials that propagate the name of candidates and are influencing the voters,” Garcia said.
“We request local candidates that are now incumbents to remove your pictures, at least. While their names can’t be avoided as they are indeed the incumbent officials, maybe we can do away with your pictures,” he said.
The poll chief said local leaders could be accused of committing abuse of state resources (ASR) through the presence of their images in the projects’ posters and streamers.
ASR, which refers to the misuse of government resources, whether material, human, coercive, regulatory, budgetary, media-related, or legislative, for electoral advantage, is considered as an election offense.
“Nothing can prevent your political rivals from filing cases and accuse you of using the local government funds to promote your candidacy,” Garcia warned.
“It would be better if you will just avoid putting your images in projects using the resources of the city hall or provincial capitol,” he said.
The campaign period for local candidates will begin on March 28 and will run until May 10.
Garcia said the Comelec is expecting the number of illegal campaign materials to surge once the local campaign period starts.
