Comelec welcomes amendments on election laws

MANILA, Philippines - Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman Sixto Brillantes has welcomed moves to amend election laws to lengthen the prescription period for election offenses.

“We really have to amend so that (offenses) will not prescribe immediately. There are debates on that now in relation to the 2004 elections,” Brillantes said.

There are disagreements if former president and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo can be charged for possible fraud in the 2004 polls.

Under the Omnibus Election Code (OEC), election offenses shall prescribe five years from the date of the commission of the crime.

Brillantes noted that laws should also be amended in such a way that poll offenses would be categorized according to gravity.

“The penalty for electoral sabotage has been elevated to life imprisonment. Maybe there can also be penalties for those in between,” he added.

There were no provisions for electoral sabotage under the OEC, only in Republic Act 9364 or the poll automation law which was passed in 2007.

The OEC merely provides for electoral offenses and covers the 2004 polls and the elections before that.