By Jennylou Canon

PHOTO: @dqdevera Twitter, UNTV

After Presidential aspirant Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. was seen aboard a government vehicle during one of his Bulacan Motorcades, Commission on Elections (Comelec) Spokesperson James Jimenez asked for clarifications regarding the event, citing a civil service rule that relates to the incident.

Jimenez mentioned a portion of Chapter 8 Section 56 of the Revised Administrative Code of 1987 on the Civil Service Commission which states “That public officers and employees holding political offices may take part in political and electoral activities but it shall be unlawful for them to solicit contributions from their subordinates or subject them to any of the acts involving subordinates prohibited in the Election Code.”

“I would like to get some clarification with the appropriate agencies, particularly Civil Service Commission (CSC) and Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG). So I am preparing to write a letter to these agencies to request clarification on this issue,” Jimenez said.

He also added that the commission will also look into whether or not the government vehicles Marcos was seen on are assigned to them as service vehicles.

Omnibus Election Code Section 261(o) states the prohibition of candidates to use government vehicles during election campaigns and partisan political activities.

Meanwhile, Marcos’ Spokesperson Vic Rodriguez sees that no rules in the Omnibus Election Code have been violated since the motorcade happened before the start of the official campaign period, which is on February 8.

“Violation of what? We were just invited by the good congresswoman of San Jose del Monte and good mayor, [and] official campaign period starts today,” Rodriguez stressed.

The controversial motorcade took place in San Jose del Monte City, Bulacan on February 7, and was a part of the UniTeam’s series of motorcades before they held their proclamation rally in the Philippine Arena last February 8.