Section 37Sec./Art. 37

Section 24 of the same Act is hereby renumbered as Section 36 and is amended to read as follows:

"SEC. 36. Prohibited Acts. - In addition to the prohibited acts provided by law, it shall be unlawful:

"36.1. For any officer or employee of the Philippine government to influence or attempt to influence any person covered by this Act to vote, or not to vote, for a particular candidate. Nothing in this Act shall be deemed to prohibit free discussion regarding politics or candidates for public office;

"36.2. For any person to deprive another of any right secured in this Act, or to give false information as to one's name, address, or period of residence for the purposes of establishing the eligibility or ineligibility to register or vote under this Act; or to conspire with another person for the purpose of encouraging the giving of false information in order to establish the eligibility or ineligibility of any individual to register or vote under this Act; or, to pay, or offer to pay, or to accept payment either for application for registration, or for voting;

"36.3. For any person to steal, conceal, alter, destroy, mutilate, manipulate, or in any way tamper with the mail containing the ballots for overseas voters, the ballot, the election returns, or any record, document or paper required for purposes of this Act;

"36.4. For any deputized agent to refuse without justifiable ground, to serve or continue serving, or to comply with one's sworn duties after acceptance of the deputization;

"36.5. For any public officer or employee or accredited or deputized organization or association to cause the preparation, printing, distribution or posting of information or material, without the prior approval of the Commission;

"36.6. For any public officer or employee to cause the transfer, promotion, extension, recall of any member of the foreign service corps, including members of the attached agencies, or otherwise cause the movement of any such member from the current post or position one (1) year before and three (3) months after the day of elections, without securing the prior approval of the Commission;

"36.7. For any person who, after being deputized by the Commission to undertake activities in connection with the implementation of this Act, shall campaign for or assist, in whatever manner, candidates in the elections;

"36.8. For any person to engage in partisan political activity abroad during the thirty (30)-day overseas voting period;

"36.9. For any person who is not a citizen of the Philippines to participate, by word or deed, directly or indirectly through qualified organizations/associations, in any manner and at any stage of the Philippine political process abroad, including participation in the campaign and elections.

"The provision of existing laws to the contrary notwithstanding, and with due regard to the Principle of Double Criminality, the prohibited acts described in this section are electoral offenses and shall be punishable in the Philippines.

"The penalties imposed under Section 264 of the Omnibus Election Code, as amended, shall be imposed on any person found guilty of committing any of the prohibited acts as defined in this section: Provided, That the penalty of prision mayor in its minimum period shall be imposed upon any person found guilty under Section 36.3 hereof without the benefit of the operation of the Indeterminate Sentence Law. If the offender is a public officer or a candidate, the penalty shall be prision mayor in its maximum period. In addition, the offender shall be sentenced to suffer perpetual disqualification to hold public office and deprivation of the right to vote."