Philippine House Votes To Allow 2010 Candidates To Campaign Early

November 18, 2009 4:59 p.m. EST

Manila, Philippines (AHN) - The House of Representatives on Tuesday approved a bill allowing candidates for next year's general elections to campaign outside of the prescribed period.

House Bill No. 6926 amends the Omnibus Election Code by letting people who have filed certificates of candidacy (COC) campaign. The period for filing of COCs is only a week long fom Nov. 20-30, while the official campaign period for national races is on February 9, and for local contests on March 26.

"We want to unburden the [Commission on Elections] COMELEC of possible deluge of cases due to vague provisions of law," Speaker Prospero Nograles said in a statement.

"This amendatory law will not only harmonize with the policy carried by Congress when it passed Republic Act 8436, as amended but will also give clear and equivocal meaning to the provision that any person who files his COC shall only be considered as a candidate at the start of the campaign period for which he filed his COC," said Rep. Teodoro Locsin, Jr., chairman of the House Committee on Suffrage and the main sponsor of the legislation.

The COMELEC is preparing to hold the nation's first fully automated elections on May 10.