The Commission on Elections (Comelec) in Negros Oriental will push ahead with its “Oplan Baklas” operations, tearing down illegally-mounted campaign materials in public places, a key poll body official here said Wednesday.
Lawyer Lionel Marco Castillano, Comelec provincial election supervisor-designate of Negros Oriental, told the Philippine News Agency that the recent Supreme Court’s temporary restraining order (TRO) on “Oplan Baklas” covers only private properties and “we respect that decision”.
“The Comelec, as an agency, is mandated to obey the Supreme Court’s ruling and we always follow lawful orders from them,” Castillano said.
The Supreme Court on March 8 issued the TRO against the Comelec pending the resolution of a petition filed by some quarters on the taking down of campaign materials posted in private places.
“For now, we will have to wait for the Supreme Court’s decision on that petition but as to public places, our operations against illegal campaign materials will go on,” he said.
To be taken down are campaign materials that do not follow the poll body’s prescribed measurements as well as those that are put up in areas that are not designated by the Comelec as a common poster area, he added.
The election officers in the different towns and cities in Negros Oriental have already started their Oplan Baklas operations but Castillano said they will go full swing by April after the training of teachers on the use of vote-counting machines is done.
The Comelec lawyer appealed to the candidates to “show respect” by not posting election propaganda materials, especially on trees, electric posts, and waiting sheds, among others. (PNA)
