With less than two months before the May 2022 polls, Commission on Elections (Comelec) commissioner George Erwin Garcia said that the en banc has discussed recalibrating its rules of requiring candidates to secure permits first with the poll body before conducting physical campaigning.

In a television interview on Thursday, March 10, Garcia mentioned that one of the things taken up during the en banc meeting is the necessity of acquiring a permit from the Comelec Campaign Committee (CCC) if an area is already under Alert Level 1.

"Nagkakaroon po kasi ng duplicity (Duplicity occurs in these situations)," he said.

Under Comelec's Resolution No. 10732, the Comelec imposed an additional requirement for both candidates and non-candidates to first approve the conduct of a rally before the applicant could get a mayor’s permit.

No election campaign activity can be conducted according to the resolution, without first obtaining prior approval from the corresponding Comelec Campaign Committee (CCC). Applications for the conduct of election campaign activities shall be filed at least 72 hours prior to the intended schedule, according to the resolution.

He added that measures such as this automatically apply to areas under Alert Level 2 and 3. With only a short time before the May 2022 elections take place, Garcia said that they will speed up the review of the said guideline so as the poll body would not seem too strict as well.
He said that the additional permit first from the CCC became an issue because it was an added work for the candidates yet Garcia mentioned that he saw the goodness in the idea as it was crafted during the time of high Covid-19 cases. Instead of abolishing it, he said that he proposed to relicabrate it by no longer asking candidates to secure a permit from the CCC in areas under Alert Level 1 to which the en bank agreed to.

"Bibigyan natin ng konting kaluwagan din yung ating mga kandidato, mga partido politikal, para mas makakilos sila, para mas makausap nila ang ating mga kababayan (We will loosen up a bit for our candidates, political parties, so they can move with ease and speak to our citizens)," Garcia stated.

"To a certain extent nauunawan natin na kinakailangan yung ating mga kandidato ay makapagpahayag ng kanilang mga plataporma, yung kanilang mga saloobin, sa ating mga kababayan (To a certain extent we understand that our candidates need to express their opinions and relay their platforms to our citizens)," he added.

Garcia said that they may issue the amendment guidelines next week.