Sixto Brillantes Jr. · @ChairBrillantes
9th May 2013 from TwitLonger
Supplement Resolution CLARIFYING and AMENDING portions of RESOLUTION NO. 9688 (Cap on Daily Withdrawals; Money Ban Checkpoints; In flagrante Arrests of Vote Buyers & Sellers, among others)
RESOLUTION NO. 9688-A
IN THE MATTER OF GRANTING ADDITIONAL EXEMPTIONS TO RESOLUTION NO. 9688.
WHEREAS, the Commission promulgated Resolution No. 9688 adopting measures to deter and prevent vote-buying in connection with the May 13, 2013 national and local elections;
WHEREAS, Paragraph 5 of Resolution No. 9688 provides for the grant of exemptions on valid and exigent grounds, to wit:
“5. The Commission en banc may exempt government agencies and instrumentalities, and private persons and entities from this Resolution on valid and exigent grounds. In urgent cases, the respective Provincial Election Supervisor or in the case of the National Capital Region, its Regional Director, may also issue exemptions that shall be valid unless revoked by the Commission en banc or the Chairman whenever it is not in session.”
WHEREFORE, premises considered, the Commission RESOLVED, as it hereby RESOLVES, to EXEMPT withdrawals, which to the determination of the bank, are routine, regular and made in the ordinary course of business of the withdrawing client consistent with the prevailing “Know-Your-Client/Customer” policy* of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas requiring banks “not only to establish the identity of their clients but also to have background knowledge of their normal business transactions…”.
RESOLVED FURTHER to AMEND paragraph 2 of the same Resolution which will now be read as follows:
“The possession, transportation and/or carrying of cash exceeding Five Hundred Thousand Pesos (₱500,000.00) or its equivalent in any foreign currency from May 8 to 13, 2013 shall be presumed for the purpose of vote-buying and electoral fraud when the same is without tenable justification or whenever attended by a genuine reason which can engender a belief that the money will be used for the purpose of vote buying.
To implement the ban, all existing COMELEC checkpoints all over the Philippines are directed to conduct a 24-hour money ban checkpoint, in addition to the gun ban checkpoint, for the duration of the period. To secure that the constitutional rights of persons are safeguarded, the guidelines on the establishment and operation of COMELEC checkpoints as provided in Resolution No. 9588 shall apply with modifications, as follows:
“Searches at COMELEC checkpoint. – Any search at any COMELEC checkpoint must be made only by members of the unit designated to man the same. It should be done in a manner which will impose minimum inconvenience upon the person or persons so searched, to the end that civil, political and human rights of the person/s are not violated.
As a rule, a valid search must be authorized by a search warrant duly issued by an appropriate authority. However, a warrantless search can be made in the following cases:
a) Moving vehicles and the seizure of evidence when in plain view, in the light of the searching officer’s experience, the amount appears to exceed the Five Hundred Thousand Pesos (₱500,000.00);
b) As long as the vehicle is neither searched nor its occupant/s subjected to a body search, and the inspection of the vehicle is merely limited to a visual search;
c) When the occupant/s of the vehicle appear to be nervous or suspicious or exhibit unnatural reaction;
d) If the officer conducting the search has reasonable or probable cause to believe that either the occupant/s is a law offender or that the instrumentality or evidence pertaining to the commission of a crime can' be found in the vehicle to be searched; or
e) On the basis of prior confidential information which re reasonably corroborated by other attendant matters.”
*Circular Letter of Deputy Governor Alberto Reyes, April 11, 2003; BSP Circular No. 706, Series of 2011.