MANILA, PHILIPPINES – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) will file petitions to more than a hundred people who filed their certificates of candidacy (COCs) for president, vice-president, and senators and declaring them as nuisance candidates.
Comelec Chairman Andres Bautista said at a press briefing that the poll body has until today to file the petition to the poll’s Law Department.
132 filed their COCs for presidential slate, 19 for vice president, and 172 for senators.
Bautista said that it’s Comelec’s “ministerial” duty to receive COCs and screen their qualifications before declaring official candidates for the election.
The Comelec can file motu propio cases to a nuisance candidate if they “put the election process in mockery or disrepute… cause confusion among the voters by the similarity of the names of the registered candidates, or who by other acts or circumstances clearly demonstrated to have no bona fide intention to run for public office.”
Bautista assured the that the Comelec will give opportunity for the concerned candidates to be heard, and the COCs will also undergo due process.