Comelec cops out as electioneering begins

Nailing campaign posters on trees and giving out sample ballots on Election Day are the commonest abuses of suffrage rules. Everybody does it or else lose by default. Besides, the Commission on Elections never enforces the laws on common poster areas and electioneering.

A third customary violation is premature campaigning. Last December two first-term senators, ballyhooed for reelection, came out with television ads urging voters to register. A city mayor also took out newspaper ads to greet constituents Merry Christmas, with the photo of a son who is touted as his successor. Expect countless other politicians to come up with their own ads before the deadline for filing of candidacy for senator on Feb. 12 and for other posts on Mar. 29. The Election Code states that aspirants for senator may campaign for 90 days and for other posts for 45 days. But many find ways to put themselves in the public eye much earlier, thus longer, for the vote. And all the Comelec can say is that such untimely ads are beyond its jurisdiction precisely because prior to the official start of campaign.

Annoyed by the Comelec copout line, party list Rep. Risa Hontiveros is proposing a law against the "unfair, unethical ads." The solution for her is "retroactive penalty," that is, to make a premature campaigner account for it upon officially filing a certificate of candidacy. If the bill becomes law, free-spending Yuletide greeters, voter-signup recruiters and accomplishment braggers not only will be disqualified from running but also prosecuted for electioneering. Six to 12 years’ imprisonment is the usual sentence for any poll violation.

There’s a hitch, though. Hontiveros has yet to file the amendment to the Election Code. Given the time constraint, it is unlikely to pass in time for the May election. Given the mentality of senators and congressmen, it is unlikely to pass at all.

Still, the Comelec is not helpless. If they reread the Constitution and the Election Code, the commissioners will find out that, even without an Hontiveros rider, they already are empowered to write implementing rules for election laws, and to deputize government agencies and citizens for enforcement. In the same way that the Comelec recently issued procedures on any new people’s initiative with the Supreme Court ruling on the law’s adequacy, so can it draft measures to monitor premature campaigning, and also defacing of trees and walls, and other breaches. For poll duty, the body may tap the police and military, various government agencies, the media and election watchdogs, and students.

Should the Comelec persist in copping out, it will in effect abet more breaches of law.

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From all indications, four huge vans of smuggled pork were stolen while in the custody of a Customs warehouse at the Manila harbor. Two months since the incident, the warehouse manager and the chief of staff of Customs boss Napoleon Morales have yet to explain why they lost charge of the confiscated contraband.

From official reports, the Bureau of Animal Industry inspected the four 40-foot vans of banned Chinese pork on Sept. 1. Reynaldo Quilang, head of BAI quarantine veterinarians, noted unmarked boxes of pork declared as frozen fish. He secured the vans with official BAI numbered seals. Customs officials then dispatched the vans to the Sigma Seven Warehouse for custody prior to destruction by dumping.

Quilang sought entry on Nov. 7, 8 and 9 to the Sigma facility for final inspection since the pork was set for burying in Pampanga. For the record, he wrote to Horacio Suansing, Port of Manila collector. Word was going around that the seals had been replaced, but still Quilang was barred entry. He wrote: "In the morning of Nov. 9, high Customs officials came over to verify the fake seals of the reefer vans. The decision of the Sigma general manager denying our inspection was not reversed despite officials’ request." Only at dusk that day in Pampanga did he discover that half the contraband was missing.

Aside from Customs policemen, witnesses to the vans’ inspection and sealing included local hog raisers. Banded under the Agricultural Suppliers Association of the Philippines, they also were supposed to witness the final inspection and burial. Rolando Maribbay, safety officer of the ASAP chairman Nicanor Briones, accompanied Quilang to the Sigma site on Nov. 7, 8 and 9. He reported that on each occasion, "our request to inspect ... was denied by the general manager, per telephone conversation with Dr. Quilang anchored by the warehouse-in-charge Mr. Deo Cabaluna."

In a report to Morales, retired general Nestorio Gualberto, as head of Customs enforcement and security, reiterated the anomaly: "Again, on the following day (Nov. 9), despite the presence of high Customs officials requesting inspection of the vans prior to transport, the general manager consistently refused, with the latter instructing the former that final inspection will be done at the dumpsite."

Extraordinary appointments from Morales somehow explain the authority of a mere civilian over law enforcers. Under Customs Special Order No. 29-2006, Morales designated Sigma as custodian of confiscated contraband. He signed thus: "The facility is placed under the operational supervision and jurisdiction of the Bureau of Customs (attention: chief of staff, Office of the Commissioner)."

Morales’s chief of staff is Atty. James Enriquez. He has not said anything about Sigma’s apparent infidelity in the custody of confiscated goods. Perhaps it will take the NBI to make him talk.

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