Election lawyer Romulo Macalintal has formally asked the Commission on Elections to temporarily halt its “Oplan Baklas” operations until it has resolved questions on the regulations covering private properties.
Macalintal said suspending the removal of campaign materials until March 25 – the start of the campaign period for local candidates – will give the poll body “ample time” to review its regulations to “ensure a uniform standard and policy for the campaign activities of national and local candidates.”
On Monday, the poll body relented a bit where oversized tarpaulins inside private properties are concerned, provided that these are advocacy-based.
“If you had your own poster made, expressing your advocacy, and in the process you mention the name of a candidate, that might be exempted [from the size regulation] because it is advocacy-based,” Comelec spokesman James Jimenez said.
“It depends really on the material used. If you are only mounting a campaign poster of a candidate, that is another story. That is simple political campaigning which the Supreme Court said we can regulate,” Jimenez added.
Macalintal said invoking Comelec guidelines on motu proprio removal of prohibited material in private properties of non-candidates “without notice and hearing” was “so arbitrary.”
“Such action is so arbitrary and a clear violation of one’s constitutional right to his property and due process,” Macalintal said.
The veteran election lawyer cited the 2015 landmark ruling of Bacolod v. Comelec which stated the provisions on posting of campaign materials do not apply to private persons or non-candidates.
Part of the ruling, Macalintal said, read: “Comelec does not have the authority to regulate the enjoyment of the preferred right to freedom of expression exercised by a non-candidate.”
Jimenez on Monday acknowledged that the poll body is willing to review its policy.
“We understand that many people have complained. The Comelec’s doors are open and we are willing to study the policy again,” he said.