The public can turn down the Commission on Elections’ (Comelec) officials and personnel who will enter their private property to remove election campaign materials.

This was stressed by several law groups as the Comelec started last Wednesday, Feb. 6, its “Oplan Baklas” to remove alleged illegal campaign materials.

“Citizens are well within their rights to politely refuse to grant entry to the Comelec,” stated the advisory issued by the University of the Philippines (UP) Constitutional Law Cluster, UP Law Clinical Legal Education Program-Civil and Political Rights Clinic, and the Recoletos Law Center.

“Also, destroying/removing private signages and other political expression inside private property cannot be done arbitrarily, and certainly without notice and hearing,” the groups said.

They warned that government officials and their agents who do so “can be held liable for violating constitutional rights, including illegal entry into private property.”

They advised the public to contact them should there be instances that “constitutional rights have been infringed.”

“Our laws don’t allow the Comelec to summarily (without notice and hearing) intrude, enter and worse, dismantle private property,” the groups stated.

They also cited that the Supreme Court (SC) has also “repeatedly reminded the Comelec of the limits of its authority.”

In one of the SC’s rulings, the groups cited that “when a person attaches a sticker with such a candidate’s name on his car bumper, he is expressing more than the name; he is espousing ideas.”

“Any governmental restriction on the right to convince others to vote for a candidate carries with it a heavy presumption of invalidity,” they warned.