ONE will know that it is already the election season when the whole community is again festooned with banners, streamers, posters, etc. of candidates touting the public to vote for them. These are on lamp posts, trees, hanging wires, and sidewalks.
From cardboard, wood, cloth, tin and paint, the materials now used are various kinds of plastics and fibers for tarpaulins and LED videos. Only the technology has been modernized; it is the same propaganda message to the voters. The information overload is so annoying that the Commission on Elections (Comelec) has to step forward to regulate election propaganda.
Last week, Comelec Chairman George Erwin Garcia reminded senatorial candidates and party-list groups to tear down all their illegal campaign materials by Feb. 14 or face disqualification.
`As they have become the first violators of election campaign rules, how can we expect them to serve honestly and in the best interest of Filipinos?’
The chairman of the poll body issued the order while in the field with his staff dismantling the illegal campaign materials to show he means business. Garcia is focused particularly on candidates who were issued notices to dismantle their illegal campaign materials, pointing out they have only 72 hours or three days from receipt of these notices. The Comelec sent out the notice to dismantle illegal campaign posters on Wednesday, a day after the campaign period started.
For those who do not know, posters and printed materials are limited to a maximum of 2×3 feet, which means that any size larger than that is in violation of campaign rules. These materials should not be outside the designated common posters area identified by the Comelec, although private properties are exempted.
The chair of the Comelec en banc warned that those who failed to comply can face election offense charges which can result in disqualification.
The Comelec is indeed empowered by law to suspend the proclamation or even disqualify an erring candidate even after one has been proclaimed and has assumed office. In fact, the Comelec has been successful in the past in removing a number of elected officials for violation of election laws.
A case in point is former governor E. R. Ejercito of Laguna who was ousted from the position because of campaign overspending.
Some candidates are using the alibi that the illegal campaign materials were set up by their supporters without their knowledge, or are even blaming their opponents for this underhanded tactic of trying to pin them down for something that is against the law. This does not wash with the Comelec.
The rule is that all illegal posters and election propaganda, regardless of who put them up, should be taken down by the concerned candidates, saying that “the presumption is they put them up.”
The poll body said the rules will be applied also to local candidates when their 45-day campaign period starts on March 13.
The candidates are presumed to be civic-minded individuals who want to participate in the democratic process that uphold the law. As they have become the first violators of election campaign rules, how can we expect them to serve honestly and in the best interest of Filipinos?
