MANILA, Philippines – It’s official campaign season again in the Philippines, as aspirants for the 2023 barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections try to court voters ahead of the October 30 vote.

The 10-day campaign period began on Thursday, October 19, and will end on October 28.

Prior to this window, campaigning was not allowed, and a Commission on Elections (Comelec) task force already slapped disqualification petitions against more than 100 candidates for violating the election code prohibition on premature campaigning.

Ahead of the campaign period kickoff, the poll body reminded candidates of prohibited acts. These include the installation of campaign paraphernalia outside common poster areas, as well as oversized posters.

The Comelec is set to hold a nationwide simultaneous Oplan Baklas to dismantle unlawful campaign materials on October 20 and October 27.

Handing T-shirts, ballers, bags, sun visors, caps, umbrellas, handkerchiefs, pens, fans, ballers, candies, food and drinks, and other items of value during and after a campaign sortie is also prohibited.

The Comelec has created a permanent national committee that goes after vote-buying offenders.

Local counterparts of the Committee on Kontra Bigay have been tasked to act on vote-buying and vote-selling complaints, and file petitions for disqualification against offenders, if necessary.

A total of 672,432 seats are up for grabs for the October 30 electoral exercise.

More than 1.41 million people have filed their candidacies, including 828,644 candidates for the barangay council, and 585,843 candidates for the Sangguniang Kabataan.

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So far, the Comelec has barred seven aspirants from running for various reasons – convictions, being a nuisance candidate, and material representations in their candidacy papers in connection with the SK’s anti-dynasty provision.

The long-delayed village-based elections were supposed to be held originally in May 2020 until two laws separately signed by then-president Rodrigo Duterte and President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. pushed the schedule to its current date of October 30.

The repeated delays frustrated advocates for clean elections, who said the deferment deprived the electorate of their right to regularly change their leaders. – Rappler.com