Reminders to public officers, employees on election
ARTICLE XI, Section 1 of the 1987 Philippine Constitution states, “Public office is a public trust. Public officers and employees must, at all times, be accountable to the people, serve them with utmost responsibility, integrity, loyalty, and efficiency; act with patriotism and justice, and lead modest lives.”
It emphasizes that as public servants, government employees shall move themselves away from partisan politics and shall remain neutral during campaign seasons and only vote during elections.
It was clearly pointed out in Batas Pambansa Blg. 881 (Omnibus Election Code)Section 261 (i) on Election Offenses that, “Any officer or employee in the civil service, except those holding political offices; any officer, employee, or member or the Armed Forces of the Philippines, or any police force, special forces, home defense forces, barangay self-defense units and all other para-military units that now exist or which may hereafter be organized who, directly or indirectly, intervenes in any election campaign or engages in any partisan political activity, except to vote or to preserve public order, if he is a peace officer.”
Omnibus Election Code pegged that election offenses will suffer the ones enumerated in Section 264. Penalties. “Any person found guilty of any election offense under this Code shall be punished with imprisonment of not less than one year but not more than six years and shall not be subject to probation. In addition, the guilty party shall be sentenced to suffer disqualification to hold public office and deprivation of the right of suffrage.”
Activities that are covered by the prohibitions identified in COMELEC and CSC Joint Circular No. 001, Series of 2016 dated March 29, 2016 are the following: A. Forming organizations, associations, clubs, committees, or other groups of persons for the purpose of soliciting votes and/or undertaking any campaign for or against a candidate/party; B. Holding political caucuses, conferences, meetings, rallies, parades, or other similar assemblies for the purpose of soliciting votes and/or undertaking any campaign for or against a candidate/party.
Also part of the prohibitions are: C. Making speeches, announcements, or commentaries, or holding interviews for or against the election of any candidate or party for public office; D. Publishing, displaying, or distributing campaign literature, or materials designed to support or oppose the election of any candidate or party; E. Directly or indirectly soliciting votes, pledges, or support for or against any candidate or party.
Identified as electioneering and part of partisan politics are also found in CSC Memorandum Circular No. 30 (s. 2009), citing CSC Memorandum Circular No. 40 (s. 1998), CSC Memorandum Circular No. 09 (s. 1992).
Only the following are exempted on the prohibition: The President and Vice President; Members of the Cabinet; Other elective public officials except barangay officials; Personal and confidential staff of the abovementioned officials and Members of the reserve corps of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
This Corner hopes that all the public servants not identified above should remain true to their Oath of Office by not involving themselves to prohibited acts during elections.