MMDA will propose poll environment bond

Chairman Tolentino explains the bond posted by candidates will automatically go to the government fund in case they failed to clean-up their campaign materials after the election

METROPOLITAN Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Chairman Francis Tolentino said he would propose for the the Election Environment Performance Bond in time for the 2016 elections.

Tolentino said under the proposal, the bond posted by candidates would automatically go to the government fund in case they failed to clean-up their campaign materials after the election.

He said the agency is spending extra fund just to clean up election trash.

“Cleaning up the election mess is not covered by our budget, so we spend extra fund for that,” Tolentino said.

MMDA has already collected almost 70 tons of election trash since they started the clean-up operations last May 15.

Tolentino said the volume was lower compared to the trash that they collected during the 2010 elections.

“This could be attributed to the increase in prices of campaign posters and tarpaulins,” he added.

For his part, Francis Martinez, head of MMDA’s Metro Parkway Clearing Group (MPCG), said that the agency has a possession of pieces of evidence against violators in the recently concluded midterm elections.

Martinez said that before they remove the campaign materials placed outside the Commission on Elections (Comelec) designated areas, they took photographs of them.

“Before and after we remove the campaign posters, we take pictures of them,” Martinez added.

The photographs could be used by losing candidates in filing cases against candidates who violated election laws particularly on displaying campaign materials outside the common poster area.