Comelec bans bets’ photos, names on government vehicles

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) yesterday ordered all local government units (LGUs) to remove photographs and names of candidates on government vehicles, including ambulances.

Comelec Commissioner Rowena Guanzon said government agencies should not be involved in partisan politics so their facilities and properties should be devoid of campaign materials.

“In Bacolod, it has come to my knowledge that a candidate or his supporters gave basketball boards to barangay officials. I am asking the barangay officials to remove them now,” she told The STAR in a text message.

If the barangay officials want to keep the basketball boards, Guanzon said they should “paint over the entire basketball board so that no words or faces are on it.”

She added that beginning tomorrow, the start of the campaign period for local election, any markings of candidates should be removed from or covered on the vehicles owned by LGUs.

In a post on Twitter, Guanzon also asked the management of the Light Rail Transit (LRT) to take down campaign materials of candidates from its facilities.

Guanzon maintained that she would take the LRT to personally “check if there are no more posters of candidates.”

DOH issues compliance memo

In compliance with the Comelec directive, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III has issued a memorandum prohibiting the posting of campaign materials in all facilities of the Department of Health (DOH).

In Department Memorandum 2019-0129 dated March 25, Duque reminded DOH officials, hospital directors and heads of attached agencies that they are bound to comply with Comelec rules and regulations in connection with the May 13 midterm elections.

“This office reiterates the policy against visual displays and campaign paraphernalia in all DOH Centers for Health Development, medical centers and public buildings,” he said.

Duque made the reiteration after Guanzon called on the DOH to remove Malasakit Center posters featuring senatorial candidate Bong Go from its hospitals.

The health chief said that while there are Malasakit posters in its hospital, they do not feature Go.

Duque surmised that Comelec was referring to a poster displayed at the Philippine General Hospital which is being run by the University of the Philippines Manila and the UP System’s Health Sciences Center and not by the DOH.

Such restriction, according to Duque, is already stipulated in two memoranda issued by the DOH in 2018.

“All DOH officials and employees are strictly enjoined to comply with all relevant Comelec rules and regulations in relation to the May 13, 2019 national and local elections,” he added.

Gutoc to PNP: Protect clergy

With the increasing number of death threats to members of the Catholic clergy, Marawi civic leader and peace builder and senatorial candidate Samira Gutoc is calling on the police to investigate the issue and provide protection to the ones involved, including two bishops and three priests.

“It is the police force’s duty to protect the citizenry. It should have investigated the death threats to the Catholic clergy and identified those who made them. It should have launched a full investigation into these allegations,” Gutoc said during the People’s Choice Movement press conference at Club Filipino in Greenhills, San Juan City.

The organization, which is composed of more than 100 lay leaders from interfaith based organizations, is endorsing Gutoc’s candidacy, along with nine other candidates.

“The police should really provide protection detail to those targeted by these death threats. I am calling on (Philippine National Police) chief (Gen. Oscar Albayalde), Sir, it is your duty to protect the citizens. If anything untoward happens to them because there is no protection detail from the PNP, you will be accountable to the public,” she said.

Five of those with death threats are priests Albert Alejo, Flavie Villanueva and Robert Reyes, Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villages and Caloocan Bishop Pablo Virgilio David.

“We cannot ignore these threats. Even if the concerned Catholic priests do not report it, the fact that the Catholic Church made it public satisfies the requirements of reporting. It is more like acting on a tip from a very credible source,” Gutoc explained.

“The PNP’s job is, again, provide protection to the people. If people do not feel safe anymore and the police is doing nothing, this is a scarring cultural indoctrination into the police system that will take years to change. Let us not be swayed by anti-church statements and continue to protect the citizens, including the said Catholic priests,” she added. “No one should be exempted from police protection, may he be from the opposition or administration, wearing slippers or donning a barong, rich or poor. You are the police of the nation, not just of the few.”

‘1 vote can change 5Ks’

One good vote can change kahirapan (poverty), korapsyon (corruption), kabastusan (vulgarity), kasinungalingan (falsehood) and kamatayan (death) or 5Ks that plague the Philippine government, according to Villegas during a forum yesterday at the PHINMA (University of Pangasinan) in Dagupan City.

In his homily prior to the “One Good Vote 2019 Advocacy Campaign” organized by the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting and the Comelec, Villegas told the crowd, composed mostly of students, that the top problem of the country is poverty due to lack of jobs, medicine for indigent patients, classrooms, housing and hunger, among others.

Second is corruption, which, Villegas said, even a Grade 1 pupil now knows the meaning of as this happens right in his or her own home or school. Corruption, according to the prelate, goes together with stealing and telling lies and takes away not only government funds but also poor people’s money.

Villegas went on to explain and illustrate the rest of the 5Ks. He then urged the people to “vote for God, vote for life, vote for courtesy, vote for good manners, vote for charity, vote for the poor because politics cannot be improved if we separate God.”  – With Cecille Suerte Felipe, Eva Visperas, Cesar Ramirez