Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 11) — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) will issue show cause orders through email to barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) aspirants over possible election offenses.
“Ngayon po ang gagawin natin para po mas mabilis ang show cause orders na yan, ipapadala po natin sa pamamagitan ng email,\” Comelec Chairman Georga Garcia said in a phone interview Monday. “Doon po namin ipapadala yung show cause orders para hindi na natin gagamitin yung postal offices. Kasi pagka-postal medyo matagal eh.\”
[Translation: We will issue the show cause orders faster. We will send them through email. We will send the show cause orders there so that we don’t have to use the postal offices because that takes quite a while.]
The move, according to Garcia, aims to speed up the crackdown on election violators. Comelec said there are over 1.4 million people who filed their certificates of candidacy for the 2023 barangay and SK elections.
Garcia explained that those who received show cause notices had three days from the date of receipt to present their case. If done through email, the date of sending will be the same as the date of receipt.
Over the weekend, the poll body issued show cause orders to 102 BSKE bets to explain possible offenses, including premature campaigning, mostly in Metro Manila, while it has yet to receive reports from Visayas and Mindanao.
While it expects the number to go up in the coming weeks, Comelec continuously warns against early campaigning as the campaign period will only run from October 19 to October 28.
“Minsan po kasi yung mga violation nandoon sa kasulok-sulukan eh. Tinatago talaga. Doon po sa poblacion, sa bayan hindi po makikita. Pero doon sa sulok-sulok na barangay. Kaya yun po yung pinapasuyod natin sa field personnel natin,” he explained.
[Translation: Sometimes the violations are hidden in the outskirts. You can’t see it in the town, but there at the corners of the barangay. That’s why we send our field personnel to comb through these areas.]
As of September 8, there have been 168 BSKE-related petitions filed before Comelec, which it will raffle to its divisions for resolution. Most of the petitions were about citizenship and residency and only one is related to early campaigning.
