The Commission on Elections (Comelec) is planning to allow warrantless arrests for those who will be caught in the act of buying or selling votes during the campaign period for the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (BSKE), which is set on October 30.
In a press conference Tuesday, Comelec chairperson George Garcia said the commission will issue new guidelines for the Philippine National Police to implement.
“In the guidelines that we will issue, we will allow the PNP to arrest if the person is caught in the act. We will authorize that now with full backing of the Comelec because it is our belief that under our Constitution warrantless arrest is allowed,” said Garcia.
The basis of the previous prohibition of arrests during the campaign period was the 1985 Omnibus Election Code, but under the 1987 Constitution, Garcia said warrantless arrest is allowed in cases of “in flagrante delicto” or being caught in the act.
He pointed out that if there is a contradiction between existing laws and the Constitution, the Constitution will be followed.
In a related development, the Comelec needs a copy of the Supreme Court decision regarding the territorial row between Makati and Taguig cities to finalize preparations for the BSKE for the two local government units.
Garcia said Comelec needs to clarify if whether Makati’s second Motion for Reconsideration with the High Court was really denied, and if there is no longer an option to file for another MR.
Comelec will also need to coordinate with the Department of Education regarding schools that will be used for the BSKE and with the Department of the Interior and Local Government for police deployment.
The PNP, meanwhile, has monitored 27 “areas of grave concern” for the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan polls.
These areas would be classified under the red category of the election hotspot list, PNP deputy chief for operations Lt. Gen. Michael John Dubria said during the joint press conference with the military and Comelec on Tuesday.
The areas are under the election hotspot list which has four categories — green, yellow, orange and red.
“We have some figures here but this is still to be submitted to the Comelec en banc for approval but for a bird’s eye view of our election areas of concern, we have four categories,” Dubria said.
“We have category green that has 37,683, which is election with no area of concern. For yellow we have 4,085, for orange we have 232 and for red we have 27 but these figures were based on past elections. So this is just a ballpark figure that is supposed to validate some more together, we have to get the approval of the Comelec en banc. So as of the moment that is the information that we can provide,” he said.
In the same briefing, PNP chief Gen. Benjamin Acorda Jr. said they are also keeping a close watch on the province of Negros Oriental and areas in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, noting that security adjustments would be made in these areas as the need arises.
Acorda also said the PNP started identifying policemen whose family members and other relatives are planning to run for the BSKE elections in October this year.
Acorda said the identification of the policemen will serve as a major factor in the adjustment of assignments on the days leading to the elections.
“We identified these police officers to really make sure that they will not become partisan in this forthcoming election,” he said during a joint press conference.
The intention, according to Acorda, is to isolate all PNP from partisan politics amid past experiences wherein the barangay elections are considered the most challenging in terms of security and peace and order.