Has the number of elective seats increased? Are there changes in the COC? Will there be a substitution drama again? Rappler answers some frequently asked questions.
The filing of certificates of candidacy (COC) will take place during a weeklong period at the start of October, allowing politicians to formalize their bids for elective office.
Rappler breaks down all the things you need to know.
How many seats are up for grabs?
Over 18,000 positions will be contested in 2025. The breakdown, as per Comelec Resolution 11050, is as follows:
- Senators: 12
- Lawmakers representing legislative districts: 254
- Lawmakers representing party-list groups: 63
- Governors: 82
- Vice governors: 82
- Provincial board members: 800
- City mayors: 149
- City vice mayors: 149
- City councilors: 1,682
- Municipal mayors: 1,493
- Municipal vice mayors: 1,493
- Municipal councilors: 11,948
- Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) members representing regional parties: 40
- BARMM members representing parliamentary districts: 32
The count does not include yet a recent Comelec resolution that noted a Senate concurrent resolution increasing the number of councilors in each of the two districts in Taguig from eight to 12.
Are there new positions created?
There are some changes.
- There are still two legislative districts in Agusan del Norte, but it is reapportioned — one for the highly urbanized city of Butuan, and one for all other localities in the province. In past elections, residents voted for representative of the province’s first district (which covers Butuan and the town of Las Nieves) and second district.
- The division of Maguindanao province into Maguindanao del Norte and Maguindanao del Sur created new positions for governor, vice governor, and 10 board members.
- A Supreme Court ruling in 2023 increased the number of seats of San Jose del Monte City in the Bulacan provincial board from one to two.
- The creation of eight new towns from 63 barangays in North Cotabato resulted in new positions for mayor, vice mayor, and councilors in each municipality.
- BARMM will finally push through with the election of parliament seats, following the postponement in 2022.
Where will the candidacy documents be filed, and when?
Filing of candidacies is from October 1 to 8, from 8 am to 5 pm, in all areas of the Philippines except in BARMM, where COC filing has been rescheduled from November 4 to 9, in the wake of the changes posed by the Supreme Court ruling that excluded Sulu from the region.
Party-list groups and senatorial aspirants shall file their candidacy papers with the Comelec law department at the Manila Hotel.
For local aspirants, local Comelec offices will be in charge of accepting their certificates of candidacy.
Will aspirants be prohibited from engaging in early campaigning after COC filing?
The short answer is no. Comelec Chairman George Garcia has backtracked on an earlier pronouncement that the poll body would prohibit premature campaigners in the 2025 elections.
The longer answer is this: our decades-old election code prohibits candidates from wooing voters before the start of the campaign period, but a landmark Supreme Court ruling in 2009 now called the Peñera doctrine said politicians are not candidates until the campaign period starts, effectively rendering useless the election code provision.
The Comelec was able to ban premature campaigning in the 2023 barangay elections, but that was because the poll body argued the Peñera doctrine does not apply to manual elections. Next year’s vote is an automated one.
Will aspirants who hold positions in government keep their posts after COC filing?
If the person holds an elective position, then yes, they get to keep their posts. But if they are holding a public appointive office, then they are considered resigned.
Once Interior Secretary Benhur Abalos files his candidacy for senator, for example, he is automatically no longer considered a part of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s Cabinet.
If the aspirant who is holding appointive or elective office is only a nominee of a party-list group, they don’t have to step down from their posts even after they accept the party-list nomination.
Will there be a substitution brouhaha again like in 2021?
The candidacy filing in 2021 was marred by placeholders who didn’t really intend to run for a certain position, but were just keeping the bench warm for another politician who wanted to buy more time, or keep the public guessing about their election plans.
Vice President Sara Duterte ran for the country’s second highest post as a substitute for another member of Lakas-CMD in 2021. In 2015, her father Rodrigo Duterte sought the presidency as a substitute for another member of PDP-Laban.
In this election cycle, the Comelec has shortened the substitution period. According to Comelec Resolution 11405, aspirants can only serve as a substitute of another person who withdraws their candidacy for whatever reason until the end of the COC filing period on October 8.
After that date, substitution of the original COC filer is only allowed in case of their death or disqualification for any cause.
For party-list groups, substitution due to the withdrawal of a person’s certificate of nomination and acceptance (CONA) is not allowed after October 8.
The Comelec is also not allowing party-list groups from changing the names or altering the order of their nominees after they have been submitted to the poll body, unless the person dies or becomes incapacitated.
Are there changes in the certificate of candidacy itself?
There are a few changes. For one, the new COC requires aspirants to promise to abide by the Comelec’s code of conduct on social media, a provision that was not part of COCs in past elections. The poll body released in September its guidelines on the use of social media, artificial intelligence, and internet technology for digital election campaign, prohibiting disinformation and misinformation.
Aspirants will also be asked to commit not to “advocate violence or unlawful means to achieve my goals.” This phrase was already present in the COC for the 2023 barangay elections, but not in the COC for the 2022 polls.
Can the Comelec stop another Alice Guo situation?
Dismissed Bamban, Tarlac mayor Alice Guo was accused of misrepresentation in her certificate of candidacy for supposedly faking her Filipino identity. Some critics said the Comelec could have reviewed her candidacy better.
Despite the flak he received for saying that the Comelec’s role in accepting filed COCs is purely ministerial, Garcia stands by his argument, citing the Supreme Court. “We do not have the discretion to refuse, to analyze, to look at the person and ask them for some documents. Our role is merely to accept the certificate of candidacy,” he said in a Rappler’s Ask Your Comelec show.
Garcia added that in the absence of an enabling law that would empower Comelec to require aspirants to submit additional documents, what the poll body will do is publish on its website all COCs, allowing registered voters to check all documents and, if they spot something suspicious, file petitions opposing the candidacies of the aspirants.
Where and when will we see the full list of candidates?
The Comelec promised to upload on its website the COCs, certificates of nomination, and certificates of acceptance of nomination of party-list groups starting October 19.
The tentative list of candidates — the ones whose names will appear on the ballot — will be posted on the Comelec website starting October 29. – Rappler.com
