NON-CANDIDATES HOLDING POLITICAL RALLIES NOT COVERED BY COMELEC’S PERMIT REQUIREMENT

The so-called “Guidelines” issued by the Commission on Elections under its Resolution No. 10732 on November 24, 2021 which it now fully implements, is causing a lot of confusion among ordinary citizens or non-candidates who also want to be heard of their political preferences in the May 9, 2022 elections.

While the said “Guidelines” do not include non-candidates who want to hold their own political activities, the Comelec still requires them to first get Comelec’s approval before they could get a mayor’s permit to conduct the said activities.

This is indeed a violation of Comelec’s own “Guidelines” because under Section 22 of Resolution No. 10732, only a “candidate” or a “political party” or through their respective authorized representatives may apply before the Comelec for approval of the conduct of any election campaign activity.  There is nothing in said resolution that requires non-candidates conducting such activities to get prior approval from Comelec.

What seems to be “Guidelines” have suddenly become arbitrary restrictions imposed by Comelec without any basis in law and in fact.  This is a flagrant violation of Section 87 of the Omnibus Election Code (OEC) and Batas Pambansa 880 or the Public Assembly Act which give sole authority to the mayors to issue such permit.  Nothing in the law gives the Comelec to interfere in the issuance of such permit.

Thus, any private citizen or non-candidate or groups of non-candidates should question any move or action by any agencies of the government prohibiting them from exercising their constitutional right to peaceably assemble and their right to freedom of expression.  They do not need any “prior approval” from the Comelec to stage and conduct their own political rallies before they could secure a ma­yor’s permit.  To require them to get “prior approval” from the Comelec would constitute prior censorship or prior restraint which is violative of a private citizen’s constitutional right to free speech.

The Supreme Court held in the 2015 case of the Diocese of Bacolod vs Comelec, that “the Comelec does not have the authority to regulate the enjoyment of the preferred right to freedom of expression exercised by a non-candidate in this case.”

Thus, a mayor should act on any application of non-candidates to hold political rallies even without the approval of the Comelec. If the application is NOT ACTED upon by the Mayor within three (3) days  after the filing thereof, the application is DEEMED APPROVED (Section 87, Omnibus Election Code), hence, the political activities may already proceed.

Furthermore, during such political rallies, non-candidates or any person for that matter cannot be arrested and/or detained at any time for holding such activities pursuant to any order of the Comelec or police officers “except only upon a warrant of arrest issued by a competent judge.”  (Section 266 of the Omnibus Election Code). As a matter of fact, even said Comelec Resolution is so silent on the effect of non-compliance therewith.