ILOILO CITY — No problem was encountered during the first day of the filing of certificates of candidacy (COCs) for the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) seats as well as the enforcement of the gun ban in Western Visayas, said the regional Commission on Elections here.
“While in some areas (in the region), there are influx (of wanna-be local officials), it was manageable here,” said Dennis Ausan, regional director of Comelec.
“Our election officers managed the filing very efficiently especially for those who woke up at 12:01 a.m to conduct checkpoint and at 8 a.m, they already started receiving COCs,” he added in an interview.
Persons eligible to cast their ballots for the barangay elections must be at least 18 years old while qualified SK voters are 15 to 30 years old.
Earlier, Ausan reminded would-be candidates to be cautious in filing their COCs as based on their experience, there are those who want to be the village chief but filled up the COCs for kagawad (councilman).
He said that Comelec will require six copies of the COCs. One will be for the main office, one will be retained by the election office, one will be the candidate’s copy, two for the notary public, and one for the Provincial Election Supervisor office.
While the accomplished COC required a documentary stamp, Ausan said there are reports reaching their office that there are areas in the region with shortage of supplies of the stamp.
But Ausan said that the issue was already resolved a few days ago when they raised the concern with the regional office of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR).
Ausan said that BIR is advising would-be candidates that if documentary stamp is not available at their municipal halls, they have to go to the BIR-revenue district office.
Ausan said the BIR noted that there are some individuals buying the documentary stamps in bulk and are selling them at a higher price.
Ausan said only one documentary stamp is needed and it should only cost PHP30.
“Only one is needed. They just have to copy the number of their documentary stamp to their other copies of COCs,” he said.
To date, Ausan said they do not have an estimated number of local officials in the region who filed their COCs during the first day but they have required all their election officers to submit their statistical report before 9 a.m on Sunday.
Based on the data of Comelec-6, a total of 4,475,949 regular voters in the region have registered for the local polls while a total of 1,588,499 registered voters for the SK polls.
Negros Occidental has the highest number of registered voters with 1,768,087, followed by Iloilo with 1,413,246; Capiz, 479,999; Aklan, 361,354; Antique, 342,251; and Guimaras with 111,012.
Meanwhile, the Police Regional Office 6 also noted the successful implementation of gun ban in the region on its first day.
Chief Inspector Joem Malong, spokesperson of PRO-6, said that all 147 police stations in the region has conducted simultaneous checkpoints at midnight.
So far, they have recorded only two gun ban-related incidents in the region.
The first gun-ban violation was committed in Cadiz City, Negros Occidental by Jonathan Sison, 33.
While conducting “Oplan Bakal Sita”at around 1 a.m on Saturday, elements of Cadiz Police Station confiscated from Sison a Smith and Wesson revolver magnum .357 without serial number and five live ammos in its cylinder.
She said that the other incident happened in Lambunao, Iloilo around 12:30 a.m. when a male minor, together with companion identified as Rey Galino accidentally hit the signage of the Comelec checkpoint while riding a motorcycle.
Although, the suspects did not yield any firearms, the police considered the offense as gun ban violation as they crashed into the checkpoint.
Both suspects were believed to be intoxicated. They sustained injuries and were rushed to the Dr. Ricardo Ladrido Memorial Hospital. (Cindy Ferrer/PNA)
