THE Commission on Elections (Comelec) will not release the copy of the certificates of candidacy (COC) of the candidates to anybody.
This was stressed by Bacolod election registrar Mavil Majarucon-Sia after she received a letter from a resident here requesting the COCs of the Grupo Progreso (GP) led by Mayor Evelio Leonardia.
Majarucon-Sia said they can only release the names of the candidates, but not the copy of the COC because of the Data Privacy Act or an act protecting individual personal private sector, creating for this purpose a national privacy commission, and for other information in information and communications systems in the government and the purpose.
She said she received a letter from Edgar Cadagat on Monday, October 15, requesting the copy of the COCs of Leonardia.
“I will still have to forward the request to the Comelec regional office,” she added.
Majarucon-Sia noted that Cadagat also failed to cite the purpose of his request.
She said in the previous elections, they also received the same request, but they refused to release the COCs of the candidates.
For his part, Cadagat said he is asking the copy of Leonardia’s COC because, in the previous years, Leonardia was convicted on his administrative case.
“His (Leonardia) case was reversed by the Court of Appeals, but I believe that this case is still in the Supreme Court,” he said.
He added they are also planning to file a case before the Office of the Ombudsman against Leonardia for not paying the Penjan Builders which was contracted by the City Government during the administration of former mayor Monico Puentevella for construction materials supply.
On March 23, 2016, Penjan Builders was awarded a contract by Puentevella in the amount of P3.8 million.
Leonardia earlier said that when he assumed his post in 2016, there were some suppliers and contractors had already delivered their products but were unpaid because of some violations. (MAP)