Election season in the Philippines starts

By CLAIRE MORALES TRUE

MANILA – The election season is officially on since January 13 and the political cauldron is heated up further.
Tension mounted in Cebu province with the suspension of Governor Gwendolyn Garcia and the filing of other charges against her and in Pangasinan with the filing of plunder charges against Governor Amado Espino Jr. and his opponent, Alaminos City Mayor Hernani Braganza.
Cagayan de Oro City Mayor Vicente Emano was also reported to be about to be booted out of office, fearing that the administration crackdown on the opposition was spreading.
Seven other governors are reportedly preparing for possible charges against them. They include Cavite Governor Jonvic Remulla, Pampanga Governor Lilia Pineda, Zambales Governor Hermogenes Ebdane, and Quezon Governor Danilo Suarez who are known supporters of the opposition.
The Commission on Elections declared the start of the election period with the imposition of an election gun ban throughout the country. Checkpoints have also been set up by police and other law enforcers to enforce the gun ban.
Going into the election which is set on May 13, 2013, more than 30 persons, many of them candidates and political leaders, the latest being a candidate for vice mayor, have been killed by gunmen, and the number is expected to grow.
 Comelec chairman Sixto Brillantes said candidates will vie for a total of 18,053 positions, which includes 12 Senate seats, 233 Congressional positions, 58 party-list representatives, and 80 provincial governor slots
 Brillantes, however stressed that while the election period has started, official campaign by Senators will not start until next month. Senators are given 45 days to campaign while local officials 30 days only.
“Official campaigning should not begin until the start of the campaign period, said  Chairman Brillantes.
 “Election period’ is different from the ‘campaign period’. I hope politicians will not mistake one for the other,” Brillantes said.
He said that the campaign period starts only on Feb. 12, 2013 for national candidates, namely those eyeing Senate seats.
For local candidates, the official campaign period is set to start March 29, 2013, Brillantes tweeted.
 Candidates for senators, both with the administration coalition led by Liberal Party, and the opposition United Nationalist Alliance (UNA), have been violating the official campaign period, having started their “infomercials” since December, purportedly to bolster the recall by voters of their candidates.
With the election period, an ban on the award of contracts, appointments and promotions of government officials and employees, including the suspension of government officials, will take effect.
 Also up for grabs will be 80   Provincial Vice-Governors,  766  Members of Sangguniang Panlalawigan, 143 City Mayors, 143 City Vice-Mayors, 1,598   Members of Sangguniang Panlungsod, 1,491   Municipal Mayors, 1,491 Municipal Vice-Mayors and
11,932  Members of Sangguniang Bayan.
 Also to be elected is an  ARMM Regional Governor, an   ARMM Regional Vice-Governor and 24  ARMM Regional Assemblymen.
 The UNA led by Vice President Jejomar Binay and former Joseph Estrada have bewailed what they said as attacks on their candidates and allies with charges by the administration and LP.
 Interior and Local Government Secretary Mar Roxas, however, shrugged off the allegation by UNA, saying the filing of charges against incumbent officials have nothing to do with politics but with their perceived violation of the law.
  UNA said that the Liberal Party’s repressive tactics in Cebu only mirrors its high-handed style in dealing with its political enemies, as it described LP’s plan to file 16 cases against Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia part of the ruling party’s grand project to strangle its rivals in the 2013 elections.
 The coalition also said the crackdown is a departure from the reform agenda, and urged respect for the appeals process.
 “Why the sudden downpour of cases against Gov. Garcia? We can only assume that a creeping crackdown on the LP’s political rivals is now in full swing,” UNA Secretary General Toby Tiangco said.
 UNA senatorial bet Ernesto Maceda said that the statement of LP Cebu official Atty. Democrito Barcenas on filing additional charges against Gov. Garcia removes all pretenses about the motive behind the suspension.
 “The statement confirms that the Garcia suspension is a Liberal Party Project and smacks of political harassment,” Maceda said.
 Another UNA senatorial candidate, Margarita “Tingting” Cojuangco, noted that the filing of other cases against Garcia is obviously not in line with President Aquino’s ‘Tuwid na Daan’.
 “Mar (Roxas) cannot feign ignorance and one need not be a genius to decipher and know who is behind and who will ultimately benefit from the removal of, and political weakening of Gov. Gwen. The timing and motivation in the belated filing of these supposed cases are simply highly suspect and overdoing it might accomplish the opposite,” she said.
 “Hopefully, this is not a politically-motivated witch hunt and a trial by publicity,” noted re-electionist Sen. Gregorio Honasan.
 “In the end, whatever the courts rule or decide, we have to follow without prejudice to the appeals mechanism,” he added.
 For her part, Nancy Binay said “due process and respect for the rule of law appears to have been set aside by the LP with its plan to deluge Gov. Garcia with cases now that the election period has started.”
 “There is no other way to see these moves other than being motivated purely by politics,” she said.
 Re-electionist Sen. Dick Gordon likewise added that from the moment Garcia filed her certificate of candidacy, any move against her can be viewed as political.