COMELEC seeks public support identify flying voters

The Commission on Elections (COMELEC) has called on the public to help them identify flying voters who applied for registration during the recently concluded voters’ registration period in connection with the October 25, 2010 Barangay elections.
In a statement, COMELEC spokesman James Jimenez announced that COMELEC Offices nationwide is set to post on Monday, August 16, 2010, a list of voters who applied for registration.

“We are calling on the public to help us identify flying voters by looking at the list of registrants that will be posted outside the Office of the Election Officer in your area on Monday. If you see people who are not residents in your Barangay, report it to your Election Officer so that they may be excluded from the voters list, if necessary,” said Jimenez.

Republic Act 8189 or the Voters Registration Act of 1996 states that any voter, candidate, or representative of a registered political party may challenge, in writing and under oath, any application for registration.

Opposition to contest a registrant’s application, said Jimenez, will be heard by the Election Registration Boards (ERB) for approval or disapproval.

According to COMELEC Resolution 9007, the last day to file opposition to the applications for registration/transfer of registration records is on August 18, 2010. Election Registration Boards (ERBs) will be hearing all applications on August 20, 2010.

COMELEC Disqualifies Svetlana Jalosjos as Baliangao Mis Occ Mayor

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Friday disqualified the daughter of former Congressman Romeo Jalosjos who won, by only SIX VOTES, as mayor of Baliangao town in Misamis Occidental during the May elections.

In a five-page decision, the Comelec's Second Division said Svetlana Jalosjos failed to prove that she stayed long enough in Baliangao as a resident to be qualified to run for mayor.

Section 39 of the Local Government Code of the Philippines states that a candidate running for an elective post must be a resident of the municipality or province where he or she is running, for at least a year.

Svetlana won over Agne Yap by only six votes in the last elections.

In the said ruling, signed by Comelec Commissioners Nicodemo Ferrer, Lucenito Tagle and Elias Yusoph, it opined that the young Jalosjos failed to establish her residency, which would allow her to run and sit as mayor of the said town.

Svetlana, won as mayor of Baliangao town against Agne Yap Sr. by only six votes.  Svetlana, being an artist is now running the family’s entertainment venture Fantasyland in Dapitan.

The Comelec argued that Svetlana “failed to prove her bodily presence in Baliangao and her intention to remain therein and her intention not to return to her domicile of origin, Dapitan City.”

“As it is, respondent even admitted that she is the one attending to their family businesses in Dapitan City. Her claim that she purchased two parcels of land in Baliangao is not backed up by any title. More importantly, the local officials of Baliangao in their joint affidavit declared that they have not seen respondent in their locality,” the document states.

The election court also pointed out that the purpose of the residency requirement is to prevent a newcomer, who is unfamiliar with the conditions and needs of the community a candidate wants to serve.

According to the resolution, the residency requirement is aimed at excluding outsiders from taking advantage of favorable circumstances existing in the community for electoral gain.

The COMELEC cited the requirements of domicile, which includes residence or bodily presence in the new locality, an intention to remain there and intention to abandon the old domicile. In the case of Svetlana Jalosjos, these requirements were absent citing that her original domicile is Dapitan City.

The case reached the Comelec after petitioners Edwin Elim Tumpag and Rodolfo Estrellada lodged their petition to question Svetlana’s qualifications.

Guidelines for the Continuing Voter Registration (6)

SEC. 6. Application sans biometrics. – The application form of an applicant who fails to submit himself for the live capture of his biometrics data for cause/s attributable to his own fault shall be deemed incomplete and not filed.  As such, the application shall be disapproved for failure to complete the requirements.

In the event that the allocated Data Capture Machine (DCM) becomes defective or the biometrics data of the applicant cannot be captured within the registration period due to the great volume of applicants, absence of electricity/alternative power source and analogous cases, the Election Officer shall receive the application and inform the applicant when to return for data capture.  The Election Officers and their Assistants are authorized to accomplish the data capture not later than August 19, 2010.  If the biometrics data capture cannot be accomplished within the said period without fault of the applicant, the application shall be submitted to ERB for Hearing.

The CVL technicians shall certify as to the fact of DCM and its peripherals malfunction to be confirmed by the Provincial Election Supervisors, who shall report the matter to the Information Technology Department.

Further, in cases where any of the DCM peripherals become defective, such that the registration procedures cannot be completed, the Provincial Election Supervisors shall be allowed to make the necessary arrangements with the concerned Election Officers under his jurisdiction to devise a scheduling system for the sharing of the working DCM peripherals with nearby cities or municipalities until such time that the defective peripherals shall be replaced with working units. This sharing mechanism shall be limited to two cities and/or municipalities.

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COMELEC Rules of Procedure - Rule 4

PART II

POWERS OF THE COMMISSION AND TRANSACTION OF BUSINESS

Rule 4

Disqualification and Inhibition

Section 1.  Disqualification or Inhibition of Members. -

a.  No Member shall sit in any case in which he or his spouse or child is related to any party within the sixth civil degree of consanguinity or affinity, or to the counsel of any of the parties within the fourth civil degree of consaguinity or affinity, or in which he has publicly expressed prejudgment as may be shown by convincing proof, or in which the subject thereof is a decision promulgated by him while previously serving as presiding judge of an inferior court, without the written consent of all the parties, signed by them and entered in the records of the case; Provided, that no Member shall be the "ponente" of an en banc decision/resolution on a motion to reconsider a decision/resolution written by him in a Division. 

b.  If it be claimed that a Member is disqualified from sitting as above provided, the party raising the issue may, in writing, file his objection with the Commission, stating the grounds therefor.  The member concerned shall either continue to participate in the hearing or withdraw therefrom, in accordance with his determination of the question of his disqualification.  His decision thereon shall forthwith be made in writing and filed with the Commission for proper notation and with the records of the case.  No appeal or stay shall be allowed from, or by reason of, his decision in favor of his own competency until after final judgment in the case. 

c.  A Member may, in the exercise of his sound discretion, inhibit himself from sitting in a case for just or valid reasons other than those mentioned above.

Sec. 2.  Disqualification Resulting in Lack of Quorum. - If the disqualification o inhibition of a Member should result in a lack of quorum in the Commission sitting en banc, the Presiding Justice of the Court of Appeals, upon request of the Commission, shall designate a Justice of said Court to sit in said case for the purpose of hearing and rendering a decision thereon.

Part II	RULES OF PROCEDURE	Part III
Rule 3	Table of Contents	Rule 5

OEC 1 - General Provisions

Article I

GENERAL PROVISIONS

Section 1. Title. - This Act shall be known and cited as the "Omnibus Election Code of the Philippines."

Sec. 2. Applicability. - This Code shall govern all election of public officers and, to the extent appropriate, all referenda and plebiscites.

Sec. 3. Election and campaign periods. - Unless otherwise fixed in special cases by the Commission on Elections, which hereinafter shall be referred to as the Commission, the election period shall commence ninety days before the day of the election and shall end thirty days thereafter.

The period of campaign shall be as follows:

1. Presidential and Vice-Presidential Election - 90 days; 
2. Election of Members of the Batasang Pambansa and Local Election - 45 days; and 
3.  Barangay Election - 15 days.

The campaign periods shall not include the day before and the day of the election.

However, in case of special elections under Article VIII, Section 5, Subsection (2) of the Constitution, the campaign period shall be forty-five days.

Sec. 4. Obligation to register and vote. - It shall be the obligation of every citizen qualified to vote to register and cast his vote.

Sec. 5. Postponement of election. - When for any serious cause such as violence, terrorism, loss or destruction of election paraphernalia or records, force majeure, and other analogous causes of such a nature that the holding of a free, orderly and honest election should become impossible in any political subdivision, the Commission, motu proprio or upon a verified petition by any interested party, and after due notice and hearing, whereby all interested parties are afforded equal opportunity to be heard, shall postpone the election therein to a date which should be reasonably close to the date of the election not held, suspended or which resulted in a failure to elect but not later than thirty days after the cessation of the cause for such postponement or suspension of the election or failure to elect.

Sec. 6. Failure of election. - If, on account of force majeure, violence, terrorism, fraud, or other analogous causes the election in any polling place has not been held on the date fixed, or had been suspended before the hour fixed by law for the closing of the voting, or after the voting and during the preparation and the transmission of the election returns or in the custody or canvass thereof, such election results in a failure to elect, and in any of such cases the failure or suspension of election would affect the result of the election, the Commission shall, on the basis of a verified petition by any interested party and after due notice and hearing, call for the holding or continuation of the election not held, suspended or which resulted in a failure to elect on a date reasonably close to the date of the election not held, suspended or which resulted in a failure to elect but not later than thirty days after the cessation of the cause of such postponement or suspension of the election or failure to elect.

Sec. 7. Call of special election. –

1. In case a vacancy arises in the Batasang Pambansa eighteen months or more before a regular election, the Commission shall call a special election to be held within sixty days after the vacancy occurs to elect the Member to serve the unexpired term.  

2. In case of the dissolution of the Batasang Pambansa, the President shall call an election which shall not be held earlier than forty-five nor later than sixty days from the date of such dissolution.

The Commission shall send sufficient copies of its resolution for the holding of the election to its provincial election supervisors and election registrars for dissemination, who shall post copies thereof in at least three conspicuous places preferably where public meetings are held in each city or municipality affected

Sec. 8. Election Code to be available in polling places. - A printed copy of this Code in English or in the national language shall be provided and be made available by the Commission in every polling place, in order that it may be readily consulted by any person in need thereof on the registration, revision and election days.

Sec. 9. Official mail and telegram relative to elections. - Papers connected with the election and required by this Code to be sent by public officers in the performance of their election duties shall be free of postage and sent by registered special delivery mail.  Telegrams of the same nature shall likewise be transmitted free of charge by government telecommunications and similar facilities.

      It shall be the duty of the Postmaster General, the Director of the Bureau of Telecommunications, and the managers of private telecommunication companies to transmit immediately and in preference to all other communications or telegrams messages reporting election results and such other messages or communications which the Commission may require or may be necessary to ensure free, honest and orderly elections.

Sec. 10. Election expenses. - Except in barangay elections, such expenses as may be necessary and reasonable in connection with the elections, referenda, plebiscites and other similar exercises shall be paid by the Commission. The Commission may direct that in the provinces, cities, or municipalities, the election expenses chargeable to the Commission be advanced by the province, city or municipality concerned subject to reimbursement by the Commission upon presentation of the proper bill.

Funds needed by the Commission to defray the expenses for the holding of regular and special elections, referenda and plebiscites shall be provided in the regular appropriations of the Commission which, upon request, shall immediately be released to the Commission.  In case of deficiency, the amount so provided shall be augmented from the special activities funds in the general appropriations act and from those specifically appropriated for the purpose in special laws.

Sec. 11. Failure to assume office. - The office of any official elected who fails or refuses to take his oath of office within six months from his proclamation shall be considered vacant, unless said failure is for a cause or causes beyond his control.

Sec. 12. Disqualifications. - Any person who has been declared by competent authority insane or incompetent, or has been sentenced by final judgment for subversion, insurrection, rebellion or for any offense for which he has been sentenced to a penalty of more than eighteen months or for a crime involving moral turpitude, shall be disqualified to be a candidate and to hold any office, unless he has been given plenary pardon or granted amnesty.

This disqualifications to be a candidate herein provided shall be deemed removed upon the declaration by competent authority that said insanity or incompetence had been removed or after the expiration of a period of five years from his service of sentence, unless within the same period he again becomes disqualified.