BACOLOD City Election Registrar Mavil Majarcuon-Sia said Tuesday, May 8, that some of the candidates for barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections in the city committed election offenses.
Since the start of the election campaign period on May 4, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) monitoring team inspected about 18 barangays, Majarucon-Sia said.
Of the 18 barangays, half of it has committed blatant election violations like posting of their posters to the electrical posts, wires, and trees, Majarucon-Sia added.
On May 5, the local poll office submitted the names of the erring candidates to Comelec-Manila.
“We do not have enough personnel to remove the illegal posters so we took a picture and submitted it to Manila. It is up to the Manila to act on it,” Majarucon-Sia said.
She said the violators may face sanctions for disqualification to run or perpetual disqualifications.
He said they will continue to monitor the remaining 43 barangays in Bacolod.
“The candidates should follow the election rules to avoid penalties and sanctions,” she added.
Comelec earlier identified the common poster areas in 61 barangays.
Bacolod City has a total of more than 2,300 candidates for barangay and SK elections and about three barangays captains are unopposed.
The Comelec officer also urged the voters not to vote the erring candidates. The campaign period will end on Saturday, May 12.
Meanwhile, Bacolod City has a total of 846 clustered precincts with 45 voting centers.
Majarucon-Sia said they also required the Electoral Board to report on May 12 to check the election paraphernalia at Comelec.
She said all the election paraphernalia will be delivered on Monday morning, May 14, to the various polling precincts.