OPPOSITION mayoral candidate Jose Gabriel "Pompee" La Viña on Friday, March 29, said he and the Padayon Pilipino-Centrist Democratic Party (CDP) coalition will comply with the Commission on Election's (Comelec) plan to regulate political campaign on social media as soon as the regulation is out and put into writing.
La Viña said he has nothing to hide on his social media accounts like Facebook, among others, as he does not use a pseudonym or fake name.
"We will comply kay (because) you know me I was the former social media director of President Rodrigo Duterte I never hit behind a pseudonym or fake name. I always use my name, I stake my life, my safety to help elect President Duterte," La Viña said.
His claims as social media director was the subject of scrutiny by his political rivals, insinuating that he may not be the official social media operator, after news about Facebook's crackdown on pro-Duterte pages linked to a certain Nic Gabunada, who is linked to Duterte's presidential campaign on social media instead.
Meanwhile, the poll body is eyeing the regulation of political campaign ads on social media.
City Comelec officer Ramil Acol urged candidates to submit the links of their official social media page to the poll body. He said the closest mandate was Comelec Resolution Number 10488, referring to the implementing rules and regulations of Fair Elections Act under Republic Act 9006.
"Naay office sa Comelec nga motan-aw ana kay i-regulate man gyud na siya so dili sila ka pataka lang og kampanya diha sa social media (there's an office in Comelec that will monitor, and they were task to regulate social media contents of the candidates' campaign)," Acol said.
However, La Viña has urged the poll body to address first the issues on how to stop the alleged massive "vote buying" and harassment of voters.
"Unta tubagon usa sa Comelec unsaon pag-undang sa massive vote-buying, pag-harass sa mga voters, unsa ilang plano this time apil nang mga teachers allegedly gadawat ug gaka-influence sa mga kandidato, mao na ilang tutokan dili ang free speech of every citizen," La Viña said.
(Hopefully Comelec will address how to stop massive vote-buying, harassment of voters, and their plans on dealing with teachers allegedly receiving bribes and influenced by candidates; they should look at that, not the free speech of every citizen.)
Aspiring councilor Adonis Gumahad, who is under the opposition slate, also said "everybody has the unlimited access to the internet and I don't think the Comelec can regulate the likes and shares."
"Initially, ang una nga question ana (the first question) is how will the Comelec regulate the social media time? I don't think that's feasible at this point," Gumahad said.
Lawyer James Judith, another Padayon-CDP aspirant for councilor, said that Comelec's move to monitor social media pages may be "ill-advised, improvidently made."
"If you may recall there was such a furor over the restraints made on social media hence the government was constrained to amend the law," he said.