Comelec inks deal with DSWD, DILG to institutionalize Eleksyon 2022 strategies

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Thursday signed a memorandum of agreement with the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) to institutionalize strategies to address election incidents in the May 2022 polls.

DSWD Secretary Rolando Bautista led the virtual signing along with Comelec Chairman Saidamen Pangarungan and DILG Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya.

According to lawyer Paul Anthony Tacorda, officer in charge of DSWD Internal Audit Service, the MOA between the agencies centers on two important issues for the DSWD.

Tacorda said the MOA addresses the issue of political candidates “maneuvering and interfering or otherwise abusing the availability and continuing implementation of Social Welfare and Development programs and services” during the campaign period.

He said it also addresses the issue of unliquidated funds and unreturned balances of local government units (LGUs) that were downloaded by the DSWD for the social welfare and development programs and projects in their respective areas.

“On the salient causes and provisions of the tripartite MOA the parties commit to identify, share, and cooperate on the ways by which undesirable political activities equating to political partisanship, maneuvering, interference, and other election incidents can be deterred,” Tacorda said.

He added that the agencies will also constitute technical working groups to separately address the main issues affecting the DSWD and the parameters, guidelines, and rules and regulations in relation to the aforementioned issues.

The agencies are also set to create ways to institutionalize procedures and strategies to better tackle election incidents.

Pangarungan, on the other hand, welcomed and thanked the government agencies that institute efforts to protect and help make the upcoming elections more credible.

“Fairness of election dictates that the massive government machinery must not be used to advance a certain candidate to the detriment of the welfare of those who really need it,” he said.

The Comelec chairman also vowed to devise ways in making more “free, honest, and credible” elections.

“We have espoused full transparency without compromising the security of our elections. Now, we take a bolder step towards accountability and fairness in the exercise of our democratic right,” he added. — BM, GMA News