The Commission on Elections-Davao Region (Comelec-Davao Region) has updated the number of candidates that are recommended for disqualification for Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (BSKE) 2023 to 12 from six aspirants which was reported last October 17.
Comelec-Davao Acting Regional Director, lawyer Gay Enumerables announced earlier this week that the numbers are yet to be updated due to their continuous monitoring and investigation of the complaints they have received.
“For Davao Region, we only have complaints. We already submitted some of our recommendations doon sa Manila kase marami talaga kaming natanggap na mga complaints (For Davao Region, we only have complaints. We already submitted some of our recommendations there in Manila because we received a lot of complaints),” she said.
However, Enumerables clarified that they are not authorized to impose disqualifications since they can only submit a recommendation based on their findings and evaluations to the national headquarters at the central office.
“Wala ta sa position na mag-disqualifiy sa ilaha. We can only refer names of candidates to the national office. Sila na ang mag-act on it ana (We are not in a position to disqualify them. We can only refer names of candidates to the national office. They will act on it),” she added.
To recall, the regional office had released a statement that they will not divulge the names of those who were complained but Enumerables said that they came from the different areas of the region.
“Hindi kami pwede mag-divulge kung ano yung laman ng ating investigation and hindi namin ma-divulge kung sino to sila basta they are from this region (We cannot divulge the content of our investigation and we cannot reveal who they are, but they are all from this region),” the official said.
Currently, the Comelec national has logged more than 125 disqualification cases and 12 of these have been removed from the electoral process due to criminal cases committed.
The manual poll is slated for Monday, October 30. DEF