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BY RUBY SILUBRICO
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Sunday, October 1, 2017
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ILOILO City – Police in Western Visayas are enforcing the election gun ban starting today.
Checkpoints will be set up and manned by police officers beginning 12:01 a.m., according to the Commission on Elections (Comelec).
No law postponing the Oct. 23 barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections has been approved as of this writing.
President Rodrigo Duterte has yet to sign the measure on the postponement passed by Congress. The House of Representatives adopted the Senate version of the bill seeking to move the elections to May 14 next year, eliminating the need for a bicameral conference committee meeting.
“We have to implement the gun ban while there is no final decision yet on the postponement of the elections,” said Superintendent Gilbert Gorero, Police Regional Office 6 (PRO-6) spokesperson.
The PRO-6 cited as basis the Comelec Memorandum and Minute Resolution No. 17-0529 titled “Revised Calendar of Activities and Periods of Certain Prohibited Acts in Connection with the October 23, 2017 Synchronized Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections.”
In addition, a Philippine National Police headquarters memorandum directs all units to enforce the gun ban, said Gorero.
All permits to carry firearms outside of residence are suspended during the gun ban from Oct. 1 to 30 – the election period – he stressed.
Only government forces will be authorized to wield firearms but they must be in complete uniform, Gorero said.
“Anyone who will violate this (policy) will be arrested and appropriately charged,” he said.
But “if the synchronized elections are postponed, we have to lift the gun ban,” the PRO-6 official clarified.
According to Comelec, carrying of firearms and deadly weapons without permit from the poll body is prohibited.
Comelec also reminded the public of the following prohibitions during the election period:
- alteration of territory of a precinct or establishment of a new precinct
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use of security personnel or bodyguards by candidates, unless authorized by Comelec
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coercing, threatening, intimidating, or terrorizing any election official or employee in the performance of his election functions or duties
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transfer or detail of officers and employees in the civil service, including public school teachers
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organizing or maintaining reaction forces, strike forces or similar forces
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suspension of any elective provincial, city, municipal, or barangay officers
Violations of any of these prohibitions are punishable by one to six years of imprisonment, disqualification from holding public office and deprivation of the right to vote, said Comelec spokesman James Jimenez.
Moreover, Comelec said interested candidates may file their certificates of candidacy between Oct. 5 and 11 while the campaign period will run from Oct. 12 to 21.
A Comelec resolution filed early this year requires each city to have at least one Comelec checkpoint, but the police and the military can likewise set up their own checkpoints in coordination with election officers with jurisdiction over each city.
On Sept. 11 the House of Representatives passed a bill seeking to move the barangay and SK elections to May next year.
The Senate used to differ with regard to the new date of the elections, and whether the current officials, whose terms are ending this month, will remain in holdover positions or be replaced by presidential appointees.
On Sept. 20 the Senate approved its final version which, just like the House version, did not include the provision that allows President Rodrigo Duterte to appoint officers-in-charge in the barangays.
Duterte himself had been calling for the postponement of the barangay and SK elections.
He feared drug money would be used to fuel the candidacies of people suspected to have connections with drug lords.
This was the second time the elections were postponed and rescheduled. Elections scheduled in October last year was moved to Oct. 23 this year. (With a report from GMA News/PN)
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