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Senators: Criminalize premature campaigning
SENATORS Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel, Richard Gordon, and Leila de Lima have pushed a measure that seeks to criminalize premature campaigning.
Pimentel, Gordon, and de Lima authored Senate Bill 2064, under Committee Report 492, which aims to severely punish premature campaigning.
The measure also redefines the term “candidate.” Pimentel, chairman of the Senate Committee on Electoral Reforms and People’s Participation, will sponsor SB 2064 when regular sessions resume on November 12, 2018.
In its committee report, the panel seeks to restore the provision found in the Omnibus Election Code of the Philippines that prohibits campaigning before the election period had set in.
“A person shall be considered a candidate the moment he files his certificate of candidacy (CoC) within the period provided by the Commission on Elections,” the report said.
This means that any form of partisan political activity by a candidate prior to his filing of CoC or before the start of the official campaign period will be considered “premature campaigning and therefore unlawful.”
Premature campaigning is an election offense punishable by imprisonment of not less than one year but not more than six years, as well as disqualification from holding public office and deprivation of the right of suffrage under Section 80 and Section 264 of the Omnibus Election Code of the Philippines.
Under the existing law, RA 9369, a person seeking an elective position is considered a candidate only during the entire campaign period.
The said law in effect decriminalized “premature campaigning,” SB 2064 pointed out.
“The unfair repercussions of this rule are far and wide. It propagates political inequality as it unduly favors rich or popular candidates over poor or less popular candidates,” Gordon said.
“It also negates transparency and accountability as it shamelessly excludes such premature campaigning from the regulation of campaign finance and the limitations on election campaign and expenditures,” he added.
“The barrage of political advertisements on TV and radio and the obvious electioneering or campaigning by many candidates way before the start of the official campaign period in the last elections were too much to be ignored,” the senator said.
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