THE Commission on Elections (Comelec) yesterday said there it is not extending today’s deadline for the filing of Statements of Contributions and Expenditures (SOCEs) by all candidates in the recent Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (BSKE).
In a phone interview, Comelec spokesman John Rex Laudiangco said that “there are no talks of any extension.”
In addition, the poll official said the Supreme Court (SC) has already prohibited the extension of the deadline for SOCE filing.
Laudiangco was referring to the SC decision promulgated in October 2021 that declared as void Comelec Resolution No. 10147, which extended the deadline for the filing of SOCEs in the 2016 polls.
“The Supreme Court has a ruling nullifying any extension of the 30 days as provided by law,” he said.
Under Republic Act No. 7166, “every candidate shall, within 30 days after the day of the election, file in duplicate with the offices of the Commission the full, true, and itemized statement of all contributions and expenditures in connection with the election”.
The last day to file SOCEs for winning and losing BSKE bets is on November 29, according to Comelec Resolution No. 10905.
Meanwhile, the Comelec said some four million official ballots and accountable forms intended for use during the BSKE will be destroyed by the poll body.
In an interview, Comelec – Deputy Executive Director for Administration (DEDA) Helen Flores said 3,990,624 unused and defective official ballots and 84,905 defective accountable forms will be destroyed by the Disposal Committee.
“This is customary on the part of the Comelec… We do this after every elections,” said Flores.
Among those that will be destroyed are 1,371,179 defective ballots due to printer error; 1,483,052 unused ballots from the conversion to cities of the former municipalities of Baliwag, Bulacan and Carmona, Cavite; 275,953 unused ballots due to transfer from Makati City to Taguig City; and 860,440 excess ballots due to repeated allocation.
Also set for destruction are 84,905 defective accountable forms due to machine error.
The destruction of poll paraphernalia will be done through manual tearing followed by shredding.
Flores said the destruction is necessary to prevent the official ballots and accountable forms from being used unlawfully.
“We just want to make sure that the rejected ballots will not be used in illegal purposes. As you can see, these are official ballots. We need to destroy these in order to make sure that they are not used,” said Flores.
In particular, she said, such materials may be used during electoral protests.
“There are pending protests, and this may be used one way or the other for any illegal purposes,” said Flores.
