Oplan Baklas in Cebu City set for April 12

CEBU, Philippines — The Commission on Elections will hold Oplan Baklas, an operation to remove illegally posted campaign materials, in Cebu City on April 12.

“We will remove all illegally posted materials like sa trees, posts, government buildings,” said COMELEC Cebu City South District election officer Marilou Paredes yesterday.

The operation will cover both north and south districts of Cebu City.

For private structures, Paredes said, they will just take pictures of them and send notices to the concerned parties following a temporary restraining order issued by the court against this matter.

Paredes said candidates will be sent out notices of the Oplan Baklas, although he added that candidates are already expected to know the dos and don’ts and the prohibited election propaganda.

Along with this, Paredes also said that they will assess the monitoring boards/tarpaulins posted in the barangays in Cebu City for the vaccination status of residents. This after reports surfaced that such boards allegedly bore the face of Mayor Michael Rama.

Meanwhile, Paredes also disclosed that the pilot implementation of the digital signing of the Board of Election Inspectors for the 2022 National and Local Elections on May 9 in Cebu City is already a go.

Cebu City is one of the three areas selected for the pilot implementation of the digital signing via iButtons. The other areas are Manila and Davao.

With this, COMELEC has its hands full with the electoral board training and refresher training for the election supervisors.

Paredes said they are already preparing ahead with Cebu as a pilot area for the digital signatures.

“We will be ready. We should be with Cebu City as pilot area for digital signatures. Election returns naa na na makina nga di na sila kinahanglan mosuwat sa ilang ngalan and then mo-tap lang sila sa iButton unya mo-appear na sa election returns and ilahang name, position… Mao nay among gikabusyhan ron,” Paredes said.

The initial plan was to make use of the iButtons for digital signature nationwide but this had to be limited to three key areas following the subsequent failure of several bidding procedures, according to reports. — JMD (FREEMAN)