MANILA, Philippines – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Tuesday, March 1, said it is possible to block the Philippine telecast of senatorial bet Manny Pacquiao’s upcoming boxing match that is feared to give him “undue advantage” over other candidates.

“Baka ‘yun, puwede,” Comelec Chairman Andres Bautista said. (That could be possible.)

Bautista explained in a news conference, “We have some form of control, or regulatory supervision, over entities which have a franchise during election period.”

“But as to whether we can stop Pacquiao from fighting,” he said, “that’s different.”

He added that the Comelec is discussing several options on Pacquiao’s case, as presented by the poll body’s law department.

Bautista also said the Comelec directed Pacquiao, a senatorial candidate under the opposition United Nationalist Alliance, to comment on position papers filed against him before the poll body.

Bautista said Pacquiao can comment on these papers 5 days upon receipt of an official notice.

This comes after Walden Bello, one of the boxer’s rival senatorial candidates, urged the Comelec to declare the upcoming match as illegal. 

‘Pacquiao knew election schedule’

Pacquiao, now Sarangani representative, is set to fight boxer Timothy Bradley Jr in a match on April 9, exactly a month before the May 9 elections.

Bello said the match on April 9 will give Pacquiao “a tremendous advantage in terms of publicity,” a violation of airtime limits for candidates. He urged Pacquiao to postpone his match with Bradley.

In a separate letter, former senator Rene Saguisag pointed out: “Candidate Manny Pacquiao had or must have known our elections will be on May 9, 2016. Therefore, for him to agree to fight in April meant he surely must have realized the value of free publicity for his first bid for a national office.”

“We cannot have this, him training and, willy-nilly, getting free publicity, in this scofflaw nation,” Saguisag said.

Comelec Commissioner Rowena Guanzon agrees that Pacquiao should postpone his match with Bradley. 

“The boxing match of Pacquiao is not a title bout so maybe it is best for him to reset it until after elections,” Guanzon said in a tweet on Tuesday.

‘We cannot impose a total ban’ 

Comelec spokesman James Jimenez, for his part, said the poll body is weighing a 2007 case involving Pacquiao’s match with Mexican boxer Jorge Solis.

Back then, the Comelec partially restricted the airing of Pacquiao’s fight in South Cotabato, where he was running for congressman in the first district. He eventually lost to Darlene Antonino Custodio.

Sixto Brillantes Jr, who would become Comelec chairman in 2011, filed the petition against Pacquiao’s match that prompted the Comelec to impose restrictions.

In 2007, the Comelec ended up allowing the broadcast only of “the boxer’s pre-fight sparring sessions and the actual bout itself” in South Cotabato, according to The Philippine Star.

A Comelec minute resolution on April 17, 2007, limited these restrictions to the first district of South Cotabato.

What the Comelec didn’t allow in the affected area was the broadcast of “the full pre-fight session and the documentaries before the actual match,” the Star reported.

“We cannot impose a total ban because Pacquiao is of national interest,” then Comelec Commissioner Rene Sarmiento reportedly said. – Rappler.com