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Moderate your campaign waste, group asks electoral candidates


Don't be "garpol," or "garbage politicians."
 
This was the appeal Sunday of an ecological group to candidates running in the 2013 elections.
 
The group coined the word "GarPol" from "garbage" and "politician," to mean a politician who has no real concern for the environment and uses the "tapon-hakot-tambak-sunog" approach to managing discards.
 
“Please don’t be a ‘garpol’ as if Mother Earth is not suffering enough from our wastefulness,” the group's blog reports EcoWaste president Von Hernandez as saying. EcoWaste Coalition said candidates, who will file their certificates of candidacy in various Comelec offices from Oct. 1 to 5, could start showing ecological responsibility by keeping Comelec grounds litter-free clean during that period.
 
Hernandez added there is no reason in the first place for candidates and their political groups to "distribute leaflets, go on motorcade or march with their families, friends and followers in tow at this very early stage of the electoral exercise.”
 
“Enlightened voters will not be pleased to see obsessive candidates holding wasteful gatherings and parades, creating trash and chaotic traffic, as if they have already won the trust of the electorate,” he added.
 
Comelec Resolution 9518 decrees that senatorial candidates file their COCs at the Comelec headquarters in Intramuros, Manila, while congressional and local candidates should file their COCs at the Comelec's municipal, provincial or regional offices.
 
On the other hand, candidates for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) should file their COCs at the Comelec's provincial and regional offices in the area.
 
Hernandez also stressed the filing of COCs should be low-key and simple as much as possible.
 
Meanwhile, EcoWaste will provide the public with guidelines on how to identify and select eco-friendly candidates, and will promote waste prevention and reduction before, during and after the campaign period. — BM, GMA News
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