Participants in election campaign activities still need to present proof of vaccination against COVID-19, the Department of the Interior and Local Government said Tuesday.
DILG Undersecretary and spokesperson Jonathan Malaya said those going to campaign rallies, caucuses and other similar election-related activities should bring their vaccination cards issued by their local government units or VaxCertPH digital certificates.
Malaya reminded the concerned parties that these are the only two COVID-19 vaccination proofs that will be accepted by law enforcers.
He said the “face mask rule, hand hygiene, and vaccination rule are still in place under any Alert Level so those are our safeguards against any possible surge in cases.’’
“Under Commission on Elections Resolution 10732, under Alert Level 1, campaign activities are allowed up to 70 percent of the operational capacity of the venue whether indoor or outdoor,” he added.
The campaign period for national candidates officially began Feb. 8 while the campaign period for local candidates will start on March 25.
Meanwhile, close to 1.7 million Filipinos abroad are expected to participate in the overseas absentee voting which is set to begin next month, Comelec said.
Based on its latest data, a total of 1,697,215 are registered as overseas voters – 1,677,631of whom are land-based voters while 19,584 are sea-based voters.
Almost half of the overseas voters are based in the Middle East and Africa with 786,997, followed by the Asia Pacific region with 450,282.
There are 306,445 voters in the North and Latin America region, while the European region has 153,491 registered voters.
Voters overseas will be casting their ballots one month ahead of the May 9 polls.
Overseas voters will only vote for president, vice-president, senators, and party-list representatives.
