ILOILO City – Aspirants for the Oct. 30 barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections have two days left, or until Sept. 2, to file their certificates of candidacy (COCs).
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) yesterday said it is ready for the influx of aspirants, especially in this city of 180 barangays.
From the first day of COC filing on Aug. 28 until yesterday, nearly 6,000 aspirants were catered to by Comelec-Iloilo City.
The estimated breakdown of applications per day is as follows:
* first day – 2,200 COCs
* second day – 700 COCs (reduced number of applications was attributed to inclement weather and flooding)
* third day – 1,500 COCs
* fourth day – 1,500 COCs
“Masulod na kita sa 6,000 subong pero ang projection namon is 7,000. And may two days pa kita nga nabilin,” said Jonathan Sayno, Iloilo City assistant election officer, in an interview with Panay News yesterday.
The city’s 180 villages are scattered in seven districts – City Proper, Arevalo, Molo, Mandurriao, Jaro, La Paz, and Lapuz.
Comelec-Iloilo City prepared seats for at least 1,500 per day at Robinsons Place Iloilo car park on Ledesma Street, including the built-in chairs in Cinemas 5 and 6.
“Ready na ready, ready naman ang tanan. Ang aton panugyan sa filers indi paghulaton ang last day kay indi naton ma-predict may problema,” Sayno said.
Comelec-Iloilo City will implement a cut-off on the last day of filing on Saturday, Sept. 2. By 4:45 p.m., only aspirants within the 30-meter radius will be catered to.
Since the first day of COC filing, the common problems encountered included not using the prescribed COC form for the corresponding position, lack of an ID picture attachment and signature, or boxes or fields not filled out. Others were not notarized or the COC forms submitted had insufficient copies.
“Mag-temprano pa kita file para biskan may problema, may ara kita daku nga time nga makalagas,” Sayno added.
Comelec Region 6, meanwhile, reminded candidates that the official campaign period is only from Oct. 18 to 28.
A candidate doing premature campaigning faces a charge for violating election rules and regulations and may be disqualified.
“It’s already an election offense just like sa liquor ban and gun ban pareho lang penalty. Though sa incumbent kon may ara sila administration infraction puede sila ma-file-lan sang administrative case,” explained Comelec-6 director Atty. Dennis Ausan.
A candidate doing premature campaigning faces a charge for violating election rules and regulations and may be disqualified.
Section 80 of the Omnibus Election Code states: “It shall be unlawful for any person, whether or not a voter or candidate, or for any party or association of persons, to engage in an election campaign or partisan political activity except during the campaign period.”
Acts considered premature campaigning include:
* putting up or attaching posters or campaign materials in public places;
* going to houses to campaign; and
* even posting posters or campaign materials on social media sites./PN
