Comelec: It's open season for early campaigning

MANILA, Philippines – It’s open season for premature campaigning with the Christmas holidays just around the corner and the midterm elections eight months away, a ranking poll official said yesterday.

“From what I see in the province and in Manila, I think it’s open season for premature campaigning. And I think this has to be regulated,” Commission on Elections (Comelec) Commissioner Rene Sarmiento said. The elections are scheduled in May next year.

Sarmiento said billboards and tarpaulins displaying photos and names of politicians have sprouted around Metro Manila and in the provinces even if the campaign period is still months away.

Some prospective senatorial candidates have also been advertising their activities and advocacies on TV, radio, and newspapers.

A politician or any individual can only be officially considered a candidate – and covered by law against premature campaigning – once the campaign period begins. The campaign period for the 2013 polls begins on Feb. 12 for senatorial and party-list bets and March 29 for candidates for local positions.

Sarmiento said Section 13 of the Poll Automation Law provides that “a person shall only be considered as a candidate at the start of the campaign period for which he filed his certificate of candidacy.”

A 2009 Supreme Court decision, he said, paved the way for the removal of premature campaigning as an election offense.

He said a measure being readied by Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago may fill the “vacuum” in the law against premature campaigning.

“Personally, I think this will minimize promotional activities of potential candidates. It’s a welcome move,” Sarmiento said.

He hopes President Aquino would certify Santiago’s bill as urgent to ensure its swift passage in Congress or just in time for the May elections.

He said that being a reform measure, the bill should get the President’s full blessing.

“This is one area that I think would require immediate reform actions on the part of the government,” he said.