Arrest remarks just a warning, says Comelec official

AN ELECTION commissioner who said they would not hesitate to call on the military to arrest people who accuse the Commission on Elections (Comelec) of bias on Monday said his remarks were just a “warning,” not a threat.

“I am actually warning the people to obey the laws just in case they were unaware,” Election Commissioner Rey E. Bulay told a news briefing in mixed English and Filipino streamed live on Facebook. “The word I used was ‘warning.’ It was clear and I said this for the good of our countrymen.“

Lawmakers at the weekend slammed Mr. Bulay for his statement last week. Detained Senator Leila M. de Lima, a former human rights commissioner, said his remarks were “uncalled for and illegal.”

Under the constitution, the only time the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) can exercise police power, such as arresting people, is when the Philippine president calls out the AFP to suppress lawless violence, she said.

“Neither Bulay nor the Comelec is the commander-in-chief,” Ms. De Lima, one of President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s most outspoken critics, said. “Not even during elections. The Comelec’s deputization power during elections certainly does not include the power to use the AFP in stifling criticisms and suppressing free speech.”

“We will not hesitate to call upon the AFP, which is now under Comelec control, to round you up and have you jailed,” Mr. Bulay told a news briefing in mixed English and Filipino on Friday.

Meanwhile, Kontra Daya convenor Danilo A. Arao urged election commissioners to listen to public criticism as part of the democratic process.

“We call on the Comelec to listen to the sentiments of the public whether or not it is something that is positive or negative to their image,” he told the ABS-CBN Channel. “There are cases where there is constructive criticism and such criticism would be evidence-based and a factual basis for having such kinds of perspective.” 

“There is an authoritarian tendency that is happening right now in our current Comelec, which is not good because the Duterte administration has been roundly criticized for the reign of tyranny and the culture of impunity,” Mr. Arao said.

“Don’t worry, I am guaranteeing that it is OK for you to criticize us and give your sentiments to the Commission on Elections,” Election Commissioner George Erwin M. Garcia told TeleRadyo in Filipino on Monday. “If ever we chase other people, it will be because of them spreading fake news and undermining electoral processes.”

He added that people may criticize Comelec as part of their right to freedom of expression.

Meanwhile, Mr. Garcia said a report that a ballot in New Zealand did not have the name of a presidential candidate is fake news.

“Our embassy in New Zealand declared that they did not receive even one complaint regarding this issue from our countrymen in New Zealand,” he said in Filipino. “When we print a ballot, we can’t just print them one by one, they are printed by batch so if it was true, we would have had multiple complaints.”

A Facebook post of a Filipino based in New Zealand claiming that she had received a ballot that was missing the name of Vice-President Maria Leonor “Leni” G. Robredo went viral at the weekend. — John Victor D. Ordoñez