How Annoyingly Cute.

Here's a piece I came across concerning the 2010 Miss Earth winners doing their part in cleaning up rubbish accrued from the just concluded national electoral campaign:

http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/257140/miss-earth-winners-participate-postelection-cleanup

While this makes for a charming little footnote on a front page awash with PPCRV count results and mudslinging going on between the Mar Roxas and Jejomar Binay camps, what one must remember here is that candidates should, in the first place, practice some self-regulation and not make subdivision walls, electric posts, etc. their personal "sampayans" for their ugly visages. The Commission on Elections, eons ago, had designated common poster areas within which candidates could slug it out. Does anybody listen to the COMELEC anymore, though? Not consistently, I think.

Check this out (from- http://www.comelec.gov.ph/2010%20National_Local/resolutions/res_8758.html):

SEC. 21. Posting the Campaign Materials. – Political parties, party-list groups, organizations, and/or coalitions thereof, and candidates may post any lawful campaign material in:

1. Authorized common poster areas in public places subject to the requirements and/or limitations set forth in the next following SEC.; and


2. Private places provided it has the consent of the owner thereof.

The posting of campaign materials in public places outside of the designated common poster areas such as streets, bridges, public structures or buildings, trees, electric posts or wires, schools, shrines, main thoroughfares and the like is prohibited. Persons posting the same shall be liable together with the candidates and other persons who caused the posting. It will be presumed that the candidates caused the posting of campaign materials outside the common poster areas if he does not remove the same within three (3) days from notice which shall be issued by the Election Officer of the city or municipality where the unlawful election propaganda are posted or displayed.

Members of the PNP and other law enforcement agencies called upon by the Election Officer or other officials of the COMELEC shall apprehend the violators caught in the act, and file the appropriate charges against them.

SEC. 22. Common Poster Areas. – Political parties, party-list groups, organizations and/or coalitions thereof, and independent candidates may, upon authority of the Commission, through the City or Municipal Election Officer (EO) concerned, erect, at their expenses, common poster areas wherein they can post, display, or exhibit their election propaganda to announce or further their candidacy subject to the following requirements and/or limitations:

1. A common poster area does not refer to a post, a tree, the wall of a building or an existing public structure that is in active use, but a structure, the location and number of which are herein below determined, that is temporarily set up by the candidates or political parties for the exclusive purpose of displaying their campaign posters;


2. Each political party, party-list group, organization, and/or coalition thereof, independent candidate may put up common poster areas in every barangay, subject to the following conditions:

5,000 registered voters or less	1 common poster area
For every increment of 5,000 registered voters thereafter	1 additional common poster area

3. Such common poster areas shall be allowed by the Election Officer (EO) only in public places such as plazas, markets, barangay centers and the like where posters may be readily seen or read, with the heaviest pedestrian and/or vehicular traffic in the city or municipality;


4. The Election Officer shall make, and post in his office, a list of the common poster areas in each city or legislative district in said city or municipality, indicating therein their exact locations, and furnish each political party or candidate copies of said list at the latter’s expense, and also the Provincial Election Supervisor and the Director IV of the Education and Information Department;


5. The Election Officer shall comply with his obligations in the immediately preceding paragraph not later than five (5) days before the start of the campaign period for national elections and failure to do so shall make him liable for gross neglect of duty;


6. The size of each common poster area shall not exceed the following dimensions:



f.1. For political parties and party-list groups – twelve (12) by sixteen (16) feet, or its equivalent but not exceeding a total area of 192 square feet; and

f.2. For independent candidates – four (4) by six (6) feet or its equivalent but not exceeding a total area of twenty four (24) square feet.

7. The individual posters that may be posted in each common poster areas shall not exceed two (2) by three (3) feet. However, in case of space limitations, posters of candidates of political parties may be reduced to a uniform size to accommodate all candidates. This regulation is also violated by making single letters of names having the maximum size or lesser and then putting them together to form a size exceeding two (2) by three (3) feet;


8. The common poster areas allocated to political parties, party-list groups, organizations and/or coalitions thereof, and independent candidates shall not be used by other political parties, party-list groups, organizations and/or coalitions thereof, and independent candidates even with the consent of the former;


9. The common poster areas put up for party-list groups, organizations and/or coalitions thereof shall be allocated at the rate of one (1) common poster area for every thirty-two (32) party-list groups, organizations and/or coalitions thereof;


10. In case there are less than thirty-two (32) party-list groups, organizations and/or coalitions thereof, applying to put up the common poster areas, the Election Officer (EO) concerned shall reduce the size of the common poster area depending on the total number of applicants thereof, provided that each group is entitled to post one two (2) feet by three (3) feet poster;


11. In case there are more than thirty-two (32) party-list groups, organizations and/or coalitions applying to put up common poster areas, the Election Officer (EO) concerned shall determine the appropriate number and size of common poster areas to equitably accommodate the total number of applicants, subject to the provisions of the immediately two (2) preceding paragraphs;


12. Political parties, party-list groups, organizations and/or coalitions thereof, and independent candidates shall file their applications to erect common poster areas with the Office of the City/Municipal Election Officer (EO) concerned within five (5) days from the effectivity of this Resolution; otherwise they must accept the listing prepared by the Election Officer.


13. Within seven (7) days after the elections, the political parties, party-list groups, organizations and/or coalitions thereof, and candidates which applied for the putting up of common poster areas shall tear down the same at their own expense and restore the site into its original condition. Non-performance of this obligation shall be deemed a violation of the law and regulation on the observance of common poster areas for which the candidate and party concerned shall be liable.


14. No lawful election propaganda materials shall be allowed outside the common poster areas except in private properties with the consent of the owner or in such other places mentioned in these rules. Any violation hereof shall be punishable as an election offense.


15. In all cases, the parties shall agree among themselves how their individual posters in the common poster areas shall be placed. In case no agreement is reached, the Election Officer (EO) concerned shall determine said placement by drawing of lots.


16. The Election Officer (EO) shall act on all applications for common poster areas within three (3) days from receipt thereof. For this purpose, he shall determine whether the proposed common poster area sites are public places with heavy pedestrian or vehicular traffic, or business or commercial centers, or densely populated areas, and equitably and impartially allocate the sites to ensure maximum exposure of the lawful propaganda materials of all political parties, party-list groups, organizations, and/or coalitions thereof, and independent candidates.


17. Any political party, party-list group, organization, and/or coalition thereof, or independent candidate aggrieved by the action of the Election Officer (EO) may appeal the same within two (2) days from receipt of the order of said Election Officer (EO) to:



q.1. The Provincial Election Supervisor (PES); or

q.2 The Regional Election Director (RED), in the case of the National Capital Region (NCR).

18. The Provincial Election Supervisor (PES) or Regional Election Director (RED) concerned shall decide the appeal within two (2) days from receipt thereof, furnishing copies of the decision to the parties concerned and to the Law Department of the Commission. The decision shall be final and executory.

See how no one seems to care about the COMELEC's rules anymore?

Maybe if candidates adhered to campaign X's and O's more, we would not have to listen to irritatingly irrelevant and flirty comments like this,

"Since nagagawa namin ‘to, ‘yung mga boys diyan na naglagay niyan, sana sumama sila’t gawin din ‘to dahil kailangan nating panatilihing malinis ang paligid.”

It's disgusting that even in cases like this, people would have to be "enticed" in this way in order to see the relevance and value behind electoral reforms and staying faithful to mandates aimed at promoting equality and order.