MANILA – The official campaign period for national candidates running in the May 10 elections began on Tuesday, highlighted by proclamation rallies for the 10 presidential bets, which were held mostly in Metro Manila and neighboring provinces.
With the start, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) reiterated its warning it would take strong action against candidates violating the country’s election laws, like campaign spending.
For instance, the Comelec said donors of print and broadcast campaign materials must make themselves known to the public.
Otherwise, the Comelec said it would ban campaign posters and advertisements that do not display the correct name and address of the donor.
It added it would also strictly enforce its order that each candidate is limited to just 120 minutes of airtime in radio and television, particularly for presidential bets as James Jimenez, the Comelec spokesman stressed:
“The Comelec is bent on ensuring a level playing field for candidates during the campaign period. That is why we will be strict in enforcing campaign rules, especially rules on the posting of campaign materials.â€
On the other hand, Comelec Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal reminded candidates that they must post their campaign materials in designated common poster areas in the country’s towns and cities.
Campaign materials like pamphlets, leaflets, cards, stickers and other printed materials found outside such areas will be taken down at the expense of the candidates, Larrazabal warned.
He pointed out such violations constitute an election offense punishable with up to six years in jail as well as perpetual disqualification from holding public office and deprivation of the right to vote.
The Comelec disclosed that a total of 50.7 million registered voters are to troop to the polling precincts throughout the country on May 10 to elect the successors of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Vice President Noli de Castro whose terms end on June 30 as mandated by the 1986 Constitution.
But while she is to step down from Malacanang, President Arroyo has been cleared by the Comelec to run for Congress to represent the second legislative district of her home province of Pampanga in Central Luzon.
The May elections are also historic because it will be the first time in the country’s history that the polls are to be computerized to wean it from the ancient and outmoded method of manual voting and counting of the ballots.
Also at stake in the coming polls are 12 senators who are to be elected nationally as well 52 seats for party list groups in the House of Representatives and thousands of provincial and local elective positions for congressman, governor, mayor and councilor.
Based on the latest public opinion polls, the presidential race has boiled down to a close contest between the standard bearers of the country’s two oldest political parties.
They are Senator Benigno Aquino 3rd, the only son of the late global democracy icon president Corazon Aquino of the Liberal Party, and Senator Manuel Villar, a multimillionaire businessman of the Nacionalista Party.
Coming in a poor third is ousted president Joseph Estrada of the “Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino†(Power of the Filipino Masses), followed by former defense secretary Gilberto Teodoro of the ruling administration party Lakas-Kampi Christian Muslim Democrats
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