Candidates banned from engaging security services over election period

Candidates in 2019 elections, including incumbent officials, are now prohibited from engaging the security services  including those provided by the Philippine National Police and the Armed Forces, PNP spokesman Chief Superintendent Benigno Durana said on Monday.

Durana cited Commission on Elections (Comelec) Resolution 10446 dated November 21, 2018 which states that “no candidate for public office including incumbent public officers seeking election to any public office should employ, avail of or engage services of security personnel or bodyguards, whether or not such bodyguards are regular members of the PNP, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) or other law enforcement agency of the government during the election period.”

Based on Comelec rules, the election period started last January 13 and will end on June 12, 2019.

The Comelec, however, could assign upon due application regular members of the PNP, AFP or other law enforcement agency to secure duration the election period candidates facing threats.

In addition, the security detail from the PNP and the military for the President, Vice President, Senate President, Speaker of the House, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Secretary of National Defense, Secretary of the Department of Interior and Local Government, Chairman and Commissioner of the Commission on Elections, Chief of Staff of the Armed Foces of the Philippines and the Armed Forces Major Service Commanders and Director Generals and Senior Officers of the PNP would remain “pursuant to their respective existing authorizations or engagements.”

On the other hand, the same Comelec Resolution allows senators, members of the House of Representatives, provincial governors, justices, judges and cabinet secretaries whose regular security complement have been provided by the PNP, military and the National Bureau of Investigation or other government law enforcement agencues for at least one year at the time of the promulgation of the Resolution “to retain the services of a maximum of two of the currently detailed officers or members of said law enforcement government agencies.”

It has only been two days since the Comelec Resolution restricting police and military escorts for 2019 candidates took effect but a candidate for Vice Mayor in Buenavista, Bohol has already survived an attack on his life on Monday.

According to a report aired over “24 Oras,” the victim identified as lawyer Rico Cabarrubias survived the attack against him staged by two gunmen around 2 pm on Monday.

The Bohol Comelec unit said in the same report that Cabarrubias was attacked while he was inside his car and his driver, who is yet to be identified by the police, died. —Llanesca T. Panti/NB, GMA News