ALLEGED involvement in illegal drugs would not affect a politician’s candidacy, according to the Commission on Elections in the Cordillera region.
With the pending release of narco-politicians by the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), Baguio City election supervisor Atty. John Paul Martin said this would even give the candidates free publicity.
“This would even serve as free publicity for the candidates. I would recall here in the City of Baguio, there was a barangay kagawad who was part of the PDEA (Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency) narco-list who was given free airtime to deny the allegations against him and eventually, I think they won. So whether it is negative or positive, it is still publicity which would benefit the candidates,” Martin said.
Martin suggested before releasing the narco-list, it would be better to file a case against those believed to be involved in illegal drugs and let the courts decide on the veracity of the allegations through evidence and if ever convicted before they are published.
“This will not affect the candidacy of any candidate who may be part of the narco-list because of the presumption of innocence, it is into art of the disqualification process of a person who have been filed with a case due to an offense specifically drug related. The only factor for disqualification would be if the respondent was convicted of such an offense,” Martin said.
He added Comelec continues to do an inventory of national candidates who have violated the fair elections act.
“The Comelec is serious in filing cases against these violators of the campaign finance rules. We continue to submit our inventory of posters which will serve as evidence so that the candidates would realize the graveness of the offense on the violation which have been ordered by the Chairman of the Commission on Elections in relation to the violation of illegal posters and the fair elections act,” Martin added.
The poll body reminded aside from the start of campaign period for senator and party-list groups which started February 12, campaign for local positions is set on March 29.
Campaign period for both will end on May 11.