Poll body probes CdO ‘team building seminar’

The Commission on Election (Comelec) regional office in Northern Mindanao on Sunday announced it will conduct an investigation into reports that the city of Cagayan de Oro City will sponsor a team building seminar of its district office after the Barangay, Sangguniang Kabataan and Barangay Elections (BSKE).

Lawyer Renato Magbutay, regional executive director for Northern Mindanao said he will look into the scheduled team building seminar of the Comelec employees.

He said the investigation is an offshoot of a report reaching his office that a Comelec district office has asked the city government to sponsor the annual team building seminar next month.

"It's not pleasant to hear Comelec involved in fundraising after the election," he said.

Magbutay said if the city government sponsors the seminar it would appear its district office is being rewarded for a job well done during the BSKE elections.

"I will conduct an investigation," he said.

Lawyer Dexter Nagtalon, Cagayan de Oro City district 1 officer confirmed that his office has requested the city government to augment the fund for the team building seminar but insisted there is nothing irregular in the request.

He explained that Comelec has limited funding for the annual seminar and he was just asking the city government to augment their budget.

"It was just a request, no damage done," Nagtalon said.

He said the team-building seminar is a regular annual activity of the Comelec and it has been the practice in the past that national and local government agencies provided augmentation funds for the said activity intended for the gender development of the employees. PERSEUS ECHEMINADA