Rody guarantees freedom of assembly for 2019 polls

CLARK FREEPORT, Pampanga – President Duterte will “hold accountable” any official found restricting the issuance of permits to assemble or hold motorcades during the campaign season, which begins in February next year.

“The right to hold a campaign rally will be unhampered. Any official that restricts the issuance of permits to peaceably assemble and to hold campaign rallies, marches and motorcades shall be held accountable before the law,” presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said in a statement issued through the Philippine Information Agency (PIA) here.

Panelo said the President is “conveying to the nation his steadfast and unwavering commitment to strictly enforce the election laws to ensure a clean, honest and fair election reflective of the genuine will of the electorate.”

He said “the right to hold a campaign rally will be unhampered.”

“The President assures the citizenry that the government will not tolerate offending practices that give undue advantage to a candidate or group of candidates,” he pointed out.

He said Duterte “guarantees that all laws will be implemented and applied to everyone regardless of political color or position.”

Panelo reiterated the position of the President that “not a single centavo from taxpayers’ money nor any government property will be spent or used for or against a candidate.”

The President, he said, “respects the right of suffrage as the hallmark of our democracy.”

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