The Commission on Elections pledged on Tuesday to file criminal and administrative charges against teachers and police officials who delayed the 2023 Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections.

Comelec chairman George Erwin Garcia said that they cannot let pass the offense made by the teachers and police officials.

"It is a criminal offense and an administrative offense at the same time. We cannot just let it go because it will happen over and over again," Garcia said in an interview.

Garcia added that withdrawing before the election is fine, but not on the election day as they already spent money on their training.

"It would be fine if you withdraw before election day because election service is not mandatory. But if you already trained, and we already spent for training, then on election day, you will withdraw from poll service. And worse, even the replacements also withdrew," he added.

Based on Section 261 of the Omnibus Election Code, Election Inspector, and Canvasser Board members were prohibited from deliberately absenting "himself/herself from the meetings of said body for the purpose of obstructing or delaying the performance of its duties or functions."

Garcia stated that such last-minute cancellations were a common occurrence in some places.

"The same thing is happening in the same areas again and again. The script never changes," he said.

Garcia questioned the delay of the election when no incident occurred.

"At the same time, we have to deal with the responsible appointive or elected officials in charge of them. Why the delay when there was no shooting incident or harassment or whatever?" Garcia added.

The chairman reported that about 2,530 teachers in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao backed out of their voluntary election day service.

He added that the police reported that they were taken off guard by the sudden requirement to do electoral service when asked what caused even the Police officers, the backup Board of Elections to beg off.

Garcia found the police explanation inadequate.

"They said it was about a short amount of time. Yes, it was a short time, but we trained them for it," Garcia said.