For 7th district seat special polls

TRECE MARTIRES CITY, Cavite – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) through Provincial Election Office here set December 5 and 6, 2022 for filing of the certificate of candidacy (COC) for the representative of the 7th District of Cavite on the special election on February 25, 2023.

According to Atty. Mico Morales-Castro, Cavite Provincial Election Supervisor, The Provincial Comelec office located on the second floor, Bahay Sanayan Building, Capitol Compound, Barangay San Agustin here is open from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on the aforementioned days set aside by the poll body to pass the COCs of those who wish to run in this special election.

“I am asking the candidates to file a COC with limited companions because we are still in the pandemic and still wearing face masks upon entry to the building,” Atty Morales-Castro said in a telephone interview.

“An aspirant must bring his certificate of candidacy and party nomination that he will receive at the PES to become a full candidate,” the election supervisor added.

The above special poll has been approved Based on the Comelec Resolution no. 10848, promulgated on October 5, 2022, led by Chairman George Erwin Garcia that the election is scheduled for February 25, 2023 for the “Representative of 7th Legislative District of Cavite” (Amadeo, Tanza, Indang, and Trece Martires City).

A calendar of activities from the confirmation of the electoral board, municipal and city board of canvassers, and the Provincial Board of Canvassers (PBOCs) on December 3, 2022 has also been released.

This means that it involves the gun ban, illegal release of prisoners before the election, use of security personnel or bodyguards, transfer of detail personnel in the civil services, including public school teachers, suspension of any elective provincial officials of Barangay officers, raising funds through lotteries and cockfighting.

The campaign period on January 26 to February 23, 2023 and the election day will be on February 25, 2023.

According to Atty. Morales-Castro, The special election will be automated since less will be spent using 90,000 machines for merely 500 precincts. He said each precinct can have at least ten voting machines.

Newly-registered voters, however, will not be allowed to participate yet in the said polls since the Election Registration Board (ERB) has not yet approved applications of new voters by that time.

A “lone candidate” shall be proclaimed by the Comelec without holding the special elections.

In July, Cavite’s seventh congressional district seat became “vacant” after then-reelected Representative Jesus Crispin “Boying” Remulla, who was elected in the May 9 polls, was appointed by President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. as Department of Justice secretary.

The chamber, through Resolution No. 100 dated July 27, officially declared the position vacant and called on the Comelec to fill the vacancy through a special election.

Remulla, ran unopposed and won his second term as congressman of the said district, who garnered 202,784 votes before he was tapped to be Justice secretary.

In the four corners of the district, the incumbent Cavite 7th District Board Member Crispin Diego “Pingoy” Remulla, one of the sons of Boying Remulla, is slated to run and former Trece Martires City Mayor Jun Sagun as one of the aspirants, according to the political leaders of the said district.