The Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) will release guidelines for political caravans and motorcades as crowds attend activities of presidential candidates for the 2022 national election that causes mass gatherings.

"Maybe in the next coming days we will release guidelines. I will release guidelines for the local government units (LGUs) . It will include rules for the conduct of caravans and motorcades in their area and what they should monitor and what we should not allow," Interior and Local Government Secretary Eduardo Ano said in a radio interview Sunday.

"We are coordinating with the Comelec to define the activities that can be allowed because the campaign period will start in February for the national, but what is happening right now, even if we say it is not yet a political rally it is still the same," he said.

Ano explained that although gatherings are allowed under Alert Level 2 subject to the minimum public health standards imposed by the Inter-Agency Task Force political

rallies are not allowed.

"In Alert Level 2 we allow assembly or gathering at 70 percent outside or outdoor as long as they will follow the minimum public health standards but of course not a political

rally. And then secondly on our alert level if it changes to Alert Level 3 and 4 it's already different," he said.

Ano said in case there is violation of the guidelines, aside from the LGUs event organizers as well as the political candidate will be held accountable.

"The first that we will go after is the organizers. They are the ones who coordinate and they also know the rules and requirements. So they are the priority and then if there is no action from the LGU, we can also go after them and of course the personality of the candidate should also have accountability," he said. Robina Asido/DMS