'OPLAN BAKLAS'. The Commission on Elections holds a province-wide "Oplan Baklas" to remove illegally-placed election campaign materials on Thursday (April 7, 2022). The operations, however, only covered public spaces that are not Comelec-designated common poster areas. (Photo courtesy of Comelec-Negros Oriental FB page) DUMAGUETE CITY - The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Thursday tore down thousands of illegal posters of political candidates in Negros Oriental who are seeking elective positions in the May 9 national and local polls. Lawyer Lionel Marco Castillano, Comelec-Negros Oriental provincial election supervisor-designate, said the agency's campaign, dubbed Oplan Baklas, was held simultaneously in the province. Castillano led the provincial Comelec office in taking down the campaign posters that were illegally plastered on trees, electric poles, government structures like waiting sheds and bridges, and at public places outside of the designated common poster areas here. Also removed were posters and other campaign materials, like tarpaulins, that did not follow the Comelec prescribed sizes. Operation Baklas teams, under the Comelec resolution, are composed of election officers, the Department of Public Works and Highways, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources or its local counterpart, and the police as security. During the March 22 orientation and briefing of candidates and their lawyers by the Comelec, Castillano said he already briefed them about Oplan Baklas. He reiterated that they did not touch election campaign materials in private properties owing to the temporary restraining order issued by the Supreme Court on the matter. Castillano said he has instructed the election officers to do an inventory and temporarily store these at their "bodegas" or storage areas. "I am thinking of bringing these later to the materials recovery facility (MRF) here so that they can be recycled, or transformed into something more useful," he said. If they do not have a storage area, then these would be immediately brought to the MRF otherwise, this can wait until after the elections, he added.(PNA) }