AMID the temporary restraining order (TRO) issued by the Supreme Court on the Oplan Baklas of the Commission on Elections, the poll body said it will continue removing illegally placed and oversized printed campaign materials in public places.
In a press conference, Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez stressed that the TRO issued by the High Court only covers private areas.
“We will continue with our Baklas Operations in public spaces as it is required by law. However, as far as baklas (dismantling) operations in private places, that is held in abeyance in deference to the Court,” Jimenez said.
Last Tuesday, SC released the TRO temporarily banning Comelec from further dismantling, removing, destroying, defacing and confiscating election materials in “privately-owned and privately-funded” installed within private property.
This was in response to the petition of St. Anthony College of Roxas City, volunteer groups Isabela for Leni and Zamboangueños for Leni, which questioned the legality of Comelec Resolution No. 10730 regarding the criteria for allowable election materials.
The TRO will remain in effect until further notice from the SC. The High Court gave Comelec 10 days to comment on the matter.
Jimenez said Comelec is still determining if it will be represented by the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG), which usually represents the government before the courts, for the said case.
“We are still looking to see who is going to draft the comment. Normally that would be the OSG. But we still have to wait and see. As you know the OSG has on occasion taken a contrary position to us, so we are going to have to wait and see what their position on this matter will be,” Jimenez said.
To note, the OSG recently filed a case against Comelec before the SC over the poll body’s Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with online news firm Rappler for fact-checking and voter education during the 2022 polls.