MANILA – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has approved the suspension of the proclamation of candidates with pending disqualification charges in the upcoming Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (BSKE) scheduled for Oct. 30.
According to a new release by the Philippines News Agency, The memorandum reads, “Please be informed that during the Referendum Consultation today, the Commission resolved to APPROVE the Suspension of Proclamation of named respondents with pending petitions to deny due course or to cancel Certificate of Candidacy (COC); to declare a nuisance candidate; and for disqualification until further orders from the Commission.” Comelec en banc reaffirmed its authority to make such a suspension under Section 600 of Comelec Resolution 10924, which stipulates the commission’s power to suspend the proclamation of a winning candidate if an unresolved petition bears strong evidence.
Comelec Chairperson George Erwin Garcia elaborated on the decision in an ambush interview. He stated that the suspensions could be resolved within a month as the official assumption of BSK posts will commence on Dec. 1. “We have practically the entire month to resolve the suspension orders, as well as the very resolution,” Garcia added. He made the remarks during Oplan Baklas, an operation for the removal of improperly-sized election posters and illegally placed election materials in the Maricaban area of Pasay City.
In scenarios where a winning barangay or SK chairperson faces a disqualification case, the winning barangay kagawad or SK member with the highest number of votes will act as the official in charge.
Regarding technological measures, Garcia disclosed that Comelec is awaiting clearance from the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) to launch its precinct finder for the Oct. 30 BSK polls. This caution is aimed at guarding against data breaches, particularly after 36,000 unsuccessful hacking attempts on the Comelec’s precinct finder in 2022 and a previous data breach in 2016.
Additionally, Garcia lauded the efforts of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and online payment platforms like GCash for supporting Comelec’s fight against vote buying. The BSP has implemented stricter monitoring and fraud management systems to track large cash volumes and suspicious transactions.