The campaign period for the senatorial race in the midterm elections starts today with candidates supported by Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte’s Hugpong ng Pagbabago (HNP) kicking off in Pampanga, while the opposition’s Otso Diretso will go on a house-to-house sortie in Caloocan City.

Additional security features for the ballots will be implemented, among them the ultraviolet markings.

Four reelectionist-senators are expected to attend the HNP rally in San Fernando City, namely, Senators Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara, Cynthia Villar, Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III and Joseph Victor “JV” Ejercito.

The HNP ticket kickoff rally is hosted by Pampanga Gov. Lilia Pineda.

Also in the powerhouse HNP slate are former Special Assistant to the President (SAP) Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go and ex-Bureau of Corrections chief Ronald dela Rosa.

Angara and Villar have confirmed attendance to the HNP rally.

Two other reelectionists, Senators Nancy Binay and Grace Poe, will be opening their campaign in separate activities in San Jose del Monte, Bulacan, and Payatas, Quezon City, respectively.

Later in the day, Binay, Angara and Ejercito will have a joint rally in San Jose del Monte, Bulacan.

Liberal Party (LP) president and Otso Diretso campaign manager Sen. Francis Pangilinan said the opposition ticket will focus on face-to-face campaign to win votes. The opposition ticket will be officially launched today in Naga City.

Pangilinan said that unlike resource-rich traditional politicians who will launch their electoral campaigns through massive proclamation rallies, the Otso Diretso candidates will start their campaign going back to the people, sharing each other’s stories.

The Commission on Elections (Comelec), meanwhile, said additional security features for the ballots will be implemented, among them the ultraviolet markings that will allow vote counting machines (VCM) to detect whether or not the ballot is legitimate or if these have already been counted.

Comelec spokesman James Jimenez. Comelec spokesman James Jimenez said the new features will prevent discrepancies and anomalies during tallying.

“The ballots also have serial numbers that would allow Comelec to deem them unusable if they are lost during delivery,” said Jimenez.

The printing of the 64 million ballots started last Saturday and may be completed by mid-April, he said.

In the same interview, Jimenez reiterated candidates for the 2019 midterm elections who fail to dismantle their illegal campaign materials may face electoral offense as campaign materials have a size limit of 2×3 feet and should not be placed outside common poster areas or in private properties without the owners’ permission.

Jimenez stressed the Comelec will start documenting unlawful campaign posters.

“Candidates are reminded to remove campaign materials. Otherwise, if you are caught in our documentation in the next days, we may have a problem. As much as possible, we want our campaign and elections to remain clean and we wish that all candidates will be compliant,” he explained.

He said candidates should be responsible even for the posters put up by their supporters.

“If you know that it is illegal and you ignore it anyway, you also benefited,” he stressed.

Comelec, however, did not recommend that civilians dismantle the posters by themselves as this may invite retaliation from candidates, he said.

Personnel from the poll body, the Public Works department and the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority are in charge of taking down the illegal materials.

The campaign period will run from 12 February to 11 May for senatorial candidates and partylist groups and from 29 March to 11 May for local bets.

Comelec said it anticipates full transmission of results from VCM to servers on election day.

Comelec Commissioner Marlon Casquejo said, in 2016, the transmission rate was 96 percent.

“This year, 100 percent will be the main aim of the poll body,” he said. “Now, we are targeting maybe 100 percent, if not 99 percent.”

The Comelec reached 91 percent transmission in the first automated polls in 2010. However, the number dropped to 76 percent in 2013 due to transmission defects.

In 2016, it bounced back to a 96 percent transmission rate.

Casquejo said in case a VCM cannot transmit results electronically due to poor telecommunications signal in remote areas and unclear skies in certain locations, the Electoral Board is mandated to bring the VCM to the nearest voting center where there is communications signal for transmission.

Meanwhile, in the absence of a nearby voting center with good signal, the VCM will be transferred to a farther area to secure a stable signal.

Casquejo said police, military, watchers and representatives of candidates will be present to monitor the transfer of the VCM from one point to another to protect the integrity of poll results.

The official said Comelec will also work with authorities to ensure unscrupulous individuals will not be able to sabotage the signal needed to transmit the votes.

“We will work with the police and the military to prevent any attempt to sabotage the signal,” Casquejo said.

The poll official said the placing of bets on the results will also constitute an election offense.

However, he said a formal complaint is needed for the prosecution of the offense to push through. Aside from a complaint, evidence is also needed to back it up.

He compared it to vote-buying where he said concrete evidence and a witness are needed.

“It is just like vote-buying. Both buyer and receiver committed an election offense. However, to file a complaint, a concrete evidence and a witness will be needed,” he said.