Poll body relaunches ‘Comelec Reports’ after 12-year hiatus
The Commission on Election launches “Comelec Reports 2021”, or a compilation of legal decisions promulgated by the poll body in 2021, on Thursday, March 20, 2025. (Photo by INQUIRER.net / DIANNE SAMPANG
MANILA, Philippines — In a bid to make promulgated legal decisions accessible to the public, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) has relaunched “Comelec Reports” after a 12-year hiatus.
During the launching ceremony on Thursday, Comelec Chairman George Erwin Garcia and Commissioner Ernesto Ferdinand Maceda Jr. presented “Comelec Reports 2021,” a compilation of resolutions and decisions made by the poll body in 2021.
Maceda, the Commissioner-in-Charge of the Comelec Reports Committee, said in his speech that the reports uphold the importance of the Comelec mandate, adding that “due process is served when people can access the law.”
Maceda also said that the reports possess three values important in ensuring free and fair elections.
“They bring, number one, clarity; they bring, number two, consistency; and number three, a sense of protection of values that animate our electoral system,” he noted.
He added that the reports “will also highlight some trends that can track more of our pivot towards more efficient technologies in the performance of our work.”
The election topics discussed in the reports comprise of the following:
- Campaign and partisan political activities
- Cancellation or denial to give due course of Certificate of Candidacy
- Citizenship and the power of the Commission to make a factual determination
- Domicile versus residence in election law
- Election offenses and the Commission’s jurisdiction
- Election protest
- Nuisance candidate
- Overspending and misdeclaration in the Statement of Contribution and Expenditure
- The Party-list System
- Second placer rule
- Transfer of Civil Service Commission employees
- Voter Registration
- Term Limits
- Vote-buying
The editorial board behind the “Comelec Reports 2021” is made up of the Comelec Law Department, Office of Clerk Commission, Commission secretary, Election Contest Adjudication Department, Education and Information Department, and the Office of Commissioner Maceda.
Aim to institutionalize
Comelec Chairman George Erwin Garcia said that the poll body is eyeing to institutionalize Comelec Reports to serve as a benchmark of rules and decisions in the future. He also said that reports of succeeding years will be released in the future.
“This is part of institutionalizing matters here in the commission para kahit magbago man ng liderato sa Comelec, lagi’t lagi, itatanong, nasaan yung mga bagay na naiprovide before sa panahon nito,” Garcia said in an ambush interview.
(This is part of institutionalizing matters here in the commission so even if we change leadership in Comelec, there will always be questions on where the past reports are.)
Further, Maceda said that the reports will be significant and will serve as a “basis” for the decision-making of the poll body’s commissioners.
“Dahil bago maglabas ng desisyon, makikita mo na ayon sa record, this is how the Comelec has acted in the past. So kung may magtatanong samin kung ano ang basis ng decision, hindi na pwedeng magsabi na kung saan saan lang galing yung basis,” Maceda said in the same interview.
(Because even before a decision is out, you can see it in the record, this is how Comelec has acted in the past. So if someone asks us what our basis in the decision is, we can’t just say that it comes elsewhere.)
Garcia also shared that copies of “Comelec Reports 2021” will be provided to the libraries of the Congress and the Palace.
Its online copy can be accessed on the Comelec’s website.
