Close to 1,000 bets for village, SK posts file COCs

THE Commission on Elections (Comelec) in Dumaguete City said Monday, April 23, that a total of 978 aspirants have filed their certificates of candidacies (COCs) for various positions in the upcoming barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections.

Of the total, two have withdrawn their COCs before the deadline for filing, which was extended to April 21, had ended, said lawyer Gildu Agoncillo, election officer of Dumaguete City.

Agoncillo said the list of certified candidates for the May 14 synchronized polls is final, although this has yet to be reviewed by his office prior to submission to the Comelec’s main office.

“We still have to go through the list because some aspirants have written down long nicknames, even though the requirement is only for shorter ones,” he said.

There are 30 barangays in Dumaguete City, with 83,140 registered regular voters.

Only two barangays — Motong and Poblacion 5 — have uncontested seats for the position of barangay chair, Comelec-Dumaguete records show.

The rest of the barangays have candidates for punong barangay between two to five persons.

As for SK chair, Poblacion Barangays 3, 4, 5 and 6 have lone contestants.

Records further show that for punong barangay, 80 aspirants have filed their COCs, while 589 are seeking the post of barangay kagawad, 91 are running for SK chair, and 218 for SK kagawads.

Agoncillo also cautioned those who plan to withdraw from the electoral race to do it earlier as the Comelec will have to delete their names from the list before the printing of the ballots.

The campaign period for the candidates will be from May 4 to midnight of May 12.

The Comelec-Dumaguete could also not yet determine how many of the barangay officials are incumbent and running for re-election, as they are still collating their data as of April 23. (PNA)