The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has disqualified Albay Governor Noel Rosal for violating the public spending ban weeks before the May 2022 national and local elections.
In a 10-page resolution promulgated on Monday, the Comelec First Division said Rosal violated Section 261 of the Omnibus Election Code when he distributed financial assistance to tricycle drivers on March 31, 2022 and senior citizens on April 2, 2022.
Under Section 261 of the Omnibus Election Code, the release of public funds during the 45-day period prior to a regular election and 30 days before a special election is strictly prohibited except for maintenance of existing public works, emergency works due to a public calamity, among others.
Rosal argued that the contribution was only the continuation of a social assistance program of Legazpi City.
However, the Comelec said that the distribution of financial assistance to tricycle drivers and senior citizens is a “social welfare and development activity that is covered by the prohibition.”
"The Commission (First Division) cannot assent to (Rosal’s) assertion that the cash assistance is exempted from the prohibition since the activity is just a continuation of what has already been started since 2021. Nowhere in the law does it state that a continuing social welfare and development project is excluded from the prohibition nor exempted thereof," the resolution read.
"All told, the conducted pay-out of cash assistance to the tricycle drivers and senior citizens within the 45-day ban is not an exempted activity and was not given an exemption by the Commission, hence, (Rosal) violated Section 261 (v) of the OEC," it added.
