BSKE campaign period begins

THE 10-day official campaign period for the October 30 Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (BSKE) starts today.

A total of 672,016 positions are at stake in this year’s polls — 42,001 for barangay (village) captains and 294,007 for members of Sangguniang Barangay (village council). The same number of positions are at stake for the SK chairman and SK Council members.

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) said there were 1,414,487 candidates in the BSKE — 96,962 for barangay captain, 731,682 for members of Sangguniang Barangay, 92,774 for Sangguniang Kabataan and 493,069 for SK council.

Comelec Chairman George Erwin Garcia 

Comelec Chairman George Erwin Garcia on Wednesday cautioned all candidates to comply with campaign expenditure laws to avoid disqualification and possible jail term.

He added that under the law, candidates are only allowed to spend P5 for voters.

“More than P5 is vote buying. You might have escaped the ban on premature campaigning, but you could be disqualified for vote buying,” Garcia said.

He added that the Comelec would implement in this year’s polls the Penera Doctrine, a 2009 landmark ruling of the Supreme Court that voids the prohibition on premature campaigning.

The doctrine refers to the 2010 Penera v. Comelec case wherein the high court reversed its decision disqualifying Sta. Monica, Surigao del Norte Mayor Rosalinda Penera, a candidate in the 2007 local elections, for violation of Section 80 of the Omnibus Election Code, a premature campaigning prohibition.

Garcia said the Comelec has concluded that the ruling on the Penera doctrine was only applicable to automated elections, not to the BSKE, which is manually done.

Election laws state that campaign posters and printed materials are limited to a maximum size of 2×3 feet, which should be placed only in designated common poster areas. Violation of campaign rules is punishable, among other things, by disqualification.

Garcia said that even posters displayed inside private properties should comply with the 2×3 feet prescribed size.

“We will not run after their private property owner, but we will write the candidate to take any oversized campaign materials inside private properties. It’s up to the candidate to talk it out with the property owner,” he added.

The Comelec has urged the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas to enhance its surveillance on the possible misuse of government funds for vote buying, vote selling and other illegal election activities.

As of October 17, the Comelec has issued 6,640 show cause orders against erring candidates. It also served 327 subpoenas for verified complaints and 304 possible disqualification notices. Meanwhile, 723 complaints have been dropped for lack of factual basis. — William B. Depasupil