TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, Jan. 11 (PIA)–Cebu provincial election supervisor Atty. Lionel Marco Castillano will have to temporarily leave his post as the routinary reshuffling of election supervisors and officers takes effect on January 21.
He will be assigned temporarily here in Bohol while Bohol provincial election supervisor Atty. Eliseo Labaria is just waiting for an order from their central office in Manila according to Commission on Elections (Comelec-Bohol) information officer Juvenal Beniga during yesterday’s general assembly of the members of the Association of United Development Information Officers in Bohol (AUDIO-Bohol).
Beniga said, the Comelec, as a practice reshuffles staff before an election to maintain its neutrality or to meet an operational need such as when another officer is needed in a place or has a relative running for a political position in their area.
A month after the election, the officer or supervisor is returned to his post to continue his regular duties.
The original schedule of the routinary reshuffling was yesterday, January 10, but Comelec moved it to January 21 in response to the request of election officers in the region to be given enough time to adjust to the transition.
Meanwhile, Beniga reminded all the information officers present during this year’s AUDIO-Bohol first general assembly of the election gun ban that will start on January 13.
He said the Comelec, as well as the Philippine National Police (PNP) has been reminding those who have been granted permits to carry firearms outside residence that these permits have been suspended until June 12.
Baniga said that the election gun ban is for all public and private citizens and all others except those law enforcers who are in uniform or on duty including the PNP, the National Bureau of Investigation, the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the prosecutors.
The Comelec however is issuing gun ban exemptions to those qualified individuals, especially those who are facing threats.
Beniga said Comelec will have a meeting with the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and PNP on Jan. 12, a day before the implementation of election gun ban. (PIA-Boholecb)