Celebrities and media practitioners may now endorse any candidate without taking a leave of absence from their work.

This, after the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said Monday that it is not requiring celebrities and media practitioners endorsing a candidate to resign or take a leave of absence from their work.

Instead, the Comelec left the discretion to the network and the individual concerned.

“As clearly laid out by the law, there’s no requirement from the Comelec for a particular media practitioner to resign or take a leave. The discretion is left to the network or the person involved,” Comelec Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal said.

The poll official was referring to Section 6.6 of Republic Act 9006, also known as the Fair Election Act, which says that “any mass media columnist, commentator, announcer, reporter, on-air correspondent or personality who is a candidate for any elective public office or is a campaign volunteer for or employed or retained in any capacity by any candidate or political party shall be deemed resigned, if so required by their employer, or shall take a leave of absence from his or her work as such during the campaign period: Provided, that any media practitioner who is an official of a political party or a member of the campaign staff of a candidate or political party shall not use his or her time or space to favor any candidate or political party.”

Larrazabal, however, warned the concerned individuals not to use their airtime to promote a particular party or candidate.

He then urged the people to file a complaint if they see any individual violating the campaign rules.

“It will be better if there’s a complaint. We can monitor it but it will be better if there will be a complaint specifically mentioning to us the particular act committed by an individual,” said Larrazabal.