ANGELES CITY -- A candidate for councilor here has issued a public apology for his campaign tarpaulins hanged on trees in Barangay Pampang here.
Louie Reyes, a former councilor in this city, said that he immediately ordered his supporters to remove the posters upon learning about the incident.
A local newspaper assailed Reyes stating that “once he hugged trees, now he punctures them to hang his campaign poster, his pro-environment advocacy crashing into the crassest hypocrisy.”
Reyes, who heads the environmentalist group Green Youth Brigade, said he directed his volunteers to hang his campaign materials on electric posts and designated poster areas.
“My instructions to my volunteers are clear: don’t hang my posters on trees. As an environmentalist, I will not allow it because I believe that it will harm the trees, which I love,” Reyes said.
He also apologized in behalf of his supporters allegedly responsible for the accidental and illegal hanging of the posters.
According to Reyes, he assumed responsibility over the fault of his men.
Reyes, who running under the slate of Angeles City mayoralty candidate Senator Lito Lapid, assured that the incident will not happen again.
Nailing of campaign materials on trees is prohibited during the campaign period under a joint resolution signed by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, the Commission on Elections and the Department of Interior and Local Government.
Presidential Decree 953, signed by then President Ferdinand Marcos in 1973, likewise state that it is unlawful to damage or destroy trees of any kind in public road, parks, plazas or other public places.
The penalty of violators is two to five years imprisonment or a fine equivalent to the damaged properties.