One-tenth of village chiefs end 3rd term

THE Commission on Elections said Sunday it will suspend the proclamation of winning candidates in today’s village or barangay council elections who are found to have violated the three-term limit set by law and file cases against them.

The announcement came a day before millions of voters troop to the polling stations from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. today, Monday, to elect 42,025 village captains and youth chairmen and an estimated 294,175 village and youth council members.

Election officials ordered the village boards of canvassers to suspend the proclamation of any winning candidate who is on the list of disqualified village captains submitted by the Interior Department.

“Any proclamation made in violation thereof shall be null and void,” the Comelec said in its latest resolution, adding any election officer failing to comply with its order faced administrative charges.

Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo recently came up with a list of 4,433 village chairmen who are no longer eligible to run in the coming polls because they have already served three consecutive terms.

The Comelec also ordered its Law Department to file an election offense case against village officials who were elected to the same position despite having served three consecutive terms.

Any official committing an election offense faces imprisonment of one to six years, disenfranchisement, and disqualification from holding public office.

Comelec spokesman James Jimenez said if a winning candidate was disqualified, the candidate with the second highest vote might be proclaimed. –Joel E. Zurbano, Manila Standard Today