‘Be fair’, Garcia tells barangay execs to allow bets to use facilities

MANILA, Philippines — Barangay officials should be fair in allowing local candidates to use facilities like basketball courts as venues of local candidate campaigns, Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairman George Erwin Garcia said on Monday.

Garcia noted that covered courts and plazas are government property in the first place.

“Be fair to everyone,” Garcia said in an ambush interview at Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas event where it deposited the Automated Election System source code for midterm polls.

READ: Comelec transfers 2025 elections source codes to BSP

“When we say, ‘be fair’, if you are allowing its usage for those [local candidates’ you support, you should allow its usage for those you do not support,” Garcia tells village officials.

Those who won’t comply with this could be liable with an administrative case, the penalty of which could be meted by the Department of Interior and Local Government, according to Garcia.

Garcia, citing a Supreme Court ruling, also said barangay officials are allowed to campaign for their preferred local candidate.

But he noted that usage of barangay resources is a no-no.

“There is no problem if you yourself support a candidate or a political party, but don’t use people’s funds or barangay resources, because that is still public funds—that is abuse of state resources,”

Those who will use barangay resources to campaign will face charges in violation of the Omnibus Election Code.

Campaign period for local candidates begins March 28.