No campaigning today until Good Friday, bets told

MANILA, Philippines — Campaigning – including online – is banned today, Maundy Thursday, until midnight of Good Friday, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) announced.

“It’s just two days, and it won’t be much of a loss for politicians to pause on campaigning and just take a rest,” Comelec Chairman George Garcia said yesterday in Filipino.

He said the Comelec has no problem with politicians organizing pabasa and distributing food to participants.

“But if they use the occasion to campaign, then that’s another story,” Garcia said.

The poll chief urged the public to use social media to expose candidates violating the ban on campaigning on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. Campaigning at resorts is also prohibited today and Friday.

“It is considered an election offense and could be a ground for disqualification of a candidate,” Garcia warned.

Candidates and political parties with online campaign platforms would be allowed to continue on Sunday.

“This is without prejudice to the appropriate sanction or legal action, should the online campaign platform of the candidate or party be subsequently found to be in violation of Comelec rules and regulations and applicable laws through the monitoring of the Task Force KKK sa Halalan,” the Comelec said.

Former senator Francis Pangilinan, who is taking another shot at the Senate, is urging fellow candidates to take a break from the noisy campaign jingles and join the Filipino faithful in reflection and prayer this Holy Week.

“I pray that we find solutions to the country’s problems, such as hunger and high food prices,” Pangilinan told The STAR in an interview at the  town hall on the sidelines of his campaign stop in Pangasinan.

With less than a month before the May midterm polls, Pangilinan said he would rather focus on his campaign promise to resolve hunger instead of engaging in political bickering.

“The people are getting confused. Let’s focus on solutions. Let’s focus on addressing hunger. Hunger should have no political color. Let us focus on that, instead of adding to the noise of partisan politics,” Pangilinan said.

The former senator has been a target of a disinformation campaign on social media due to his viral food blog where he was shown eating rice and carabao milk from a pot cover.

But instead of naming the perpetrators of the influencer operations, Pangilinan urged the Comelec to look into deactivating or suspending the troll accounts and hold a dialogue with the big tech companies to address disinformation.

“Clearly, you can see there is an orchestrated campaign to attack us. We have an idea, but I’d rather call on Comelec to dialogue with digital media giants and find out if they are doing enough to stop this kind of disinformation,” Pangilinan said.

“You have freedom of expression – you even have freedom of information – but you don’t have freedom of disinformation,” he added.

Battle plan

The Comelec and the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), meanwhile, are bracing for a surge in fake news and are preparing a battle plan to push back a rampaging army of trolls as the May 12 elections near.

“The threats are evolving. From fake news to deepfakes and organized troll armies – our election system must be ready to face them head-on,” DICT Secretary Henry Rhoel Aguda said at a meeting of the Comelec Advisory Council (CAC). “We must be proactive, not reactive.”

At the meeting, the CAC acknowledged the growing influence of social media platforms in the elections, as it welcomed the move of tech giants TikTok, Google and Meta to ban paid political ads on their platforms. Google implemented the ban at the start of the official campaign period.

The CAC is composed of representatives from government, academe, ICT professional organizations and non-government electoral reform organizations.

The DICT is collaborating closely with Comelec on several key initiatives to enhance the technological infrastructure of the elections.

These initiatives include the establishment of Precinct Results Finder, Registration Status Verifier and Election Results Website, all aimed at ensuring transparency and providing real-time access to election data.

Additionally, DICT’s Cybersecurity Bureau has launched initiatives such as Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Testing to identify and mitigate security risks, as well as protect the integrity of digital infrastructure throughout the election process.

Another key technological measure is the deployment of Public Key Infrastructure digital certificates, to be used by teachers serving as electoral board members. These certificates will ensure the integrity, confidentiality and authentication of election data.

“Every vote matters, and so does every byte of information. Let’s work together to secure both,” Aguda said.

Foreign observers

More than 200 observers from European Union member-states, Canada, Norway and Switzerland will observe the May 12 elections, together with the 72 members of the EU Election Observers Mission (EU EOM) who fanned out across the country. Prior to their deployment, they received a comprehensive briefing in Manila on the election framework and on the political environment, the mainstream media and social media ecosystem.

Marta Temido, a member of the European Parliament from Portugal, leads the EU EOM.

“Our long-term observers will be deployed across all regions of the Philippines, covering both urban and rural areas,” said deputy chief observer Manuel Sánchez de Nogués.

“They will observe the electoral process before, during and after the vote on 12 May and will meet with electoral officials, candidates, civil society representatives and the media to gain a comprehensive understanding of the electoral process,” he said.

“The Mission focuses on key aspects of the electoral process, including the legal framework, the work of the election administration, the election campaign, the role of the media and social media, voting, automated counting, tabulation of results and the resolution of election-related disputes,” Nogués said.

“The Mission operates with complete independence and impartiality and does not interfere in the electoral process,” he added.

The EU EOM will issue a preliminary statement shortly after election day and will remain in the country until the end of May. A final report will be published at a later stage and will include recommendations to be presented to Philippine authorities for their consideration in future elections.

The EU EOM Philippines 2025 is independent from the EU institutions and EU member-states.-  Rainier Allan Ronda, Marc Jayson Cayabyab, Pia Lee-Brago