Commission on Elections (COMELEC) Commissioner Rowena Guanzon said the poll body has no decision yet as to when the plebiscite in Palawan will be held.
“No date has been decided yet by the @COMELEC as to when will be the plebiscite in Palawan,” she said in her Twitter account @rowena_guanzon.
Guanzon said the plebiscite in Palawan will push through months from now if the province is not on lockdown.
She added that the plebiscite will be held when it is already safe to conduct it.
“We have to wait until it is safe. To ensure that people can cast their votes without fear of contamination,” Guanzon said.
It was last month when the Comelec suspended the May 11, 2020 plebiscite to ratify the division of the province of Palawan due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and the Enhanced Community Quarantine in Luzon.
The en banc agreed with the recommendation of its Law Department that holding of a free and honest plebiscite on May 11, 2020 is impossible at the height of the spread of the COVID-19.
“In a health crisis as the COVID-19, the Commission is more importantly mandated to protect not only its personnel but the registered voters of the 23 municipalities of the province of Palawan,” the Law Department said in its recommendation.
The Law Department also said that it is logistically impossible to deploy personnel and election paraphernalia necessary for the conduct of the plebiscite.
According to the poll body, pursuant to Section 5 of the Omnibus Election Code, the plebiscite shall be postponed to a date which should be reasonably close to May 11, 2020 but not later than 30 days after the cessation of the cause for such postponement or until the ECQ is lifted.
The poll body set the conduct of the plebiscite to ratify the division of the province of Palawan into Palawan del Norte, Palawan Oriental, and Palawan del Sur on May 11 last November.
This is in accordance to Republic Act No. 11259 which provides that the plebiscite should be held on the second Monday of May 2020.
RA 11259 was signed into law by President Duterte in April last year.
https://news.mb.com.ph/2020/05/10/no-date-yet-for-palawan-plebiscite-comelec/
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