MANILA, Philippines — Filing a certificate of candidacy (COC) does not guarantee that an aspirant’s name can be formally included in the voting ballots. During a certain period after the COC filing, the Comelec allows petitions to be filed against nuisance candidates.
Comelec chairman George Garcia told INQUIRER.net that the grounds for declaring an aspirant’s candidacy a “nuisance” are based on Section 69 of the Omnibus Election Code.
It states that a nuisance candidate can be defined as someone who filed a COC “to put the election process in mockery or disrepute, or to cause confusion among the voters by the similarity of the names; or in other circumstances which clearly demonstrate that the candidate has no bona fide intention to run for office and to prevent a faithful determination of the true will of the electorate.”
READ: The relevance of filing a certificate of candidacy
Totality rule
The poll body chief said Comelec adopts a “totality rule” for declaring nuisance candidates, which considers factors such as whether an aspirant has no political party, lacks a social media presence, and is running as an independent candidate.
He also added that having no statements, policies, or platforms can add to their discernment of the rule.
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Garcia cited a Supreme Court ruling that an aspirant cannot be declared a nuisance candidate if they belong to a political party. However, he said it is a “case to case basis.”
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“May partido ka nga, pero syempre kahit may partido ka, ‘di naman sinabi ng Korte Suprema na absolutely kapag may partido ay pwede nang makatakbo ka agad. Pero sino ba yung partido? Number two, sino ba siya bago siya maging myembro ng partidong ito,” Garcia pointed out.
(You may have a political party, but of course, even if you have a party, the Supreme Court did not absolutely state that having a party automatically qualifies you to run. But who is this party? And secondly, who were they before they became party members?)
Legitimate vs nuisance candidates
The Comelec released on Wednesday the partial and official list of 66 legitimate senatorial aspirants. A total of 183 aspirants filed their COCs for senator in the 2025 polls.
READ: Comelec releases initial list of 66 bets for 2025 Senate race
According to Garcia, checking the aspirants’ legitimacy is not just based on how they presented themselves on the podium after they filed their COCs.
“Mayroon din kaming background checking sa kanilang Facebook accounts kung sakali man o ‘yung news tungkol sa kanila ay niresearch din ng aming tauhan sa law department. Nagkaroon sila ng clear idea dun sa tao,” the chairman said.
(We did background checks on their Facebook accounts, and news about them was also researched by our staff in the law department. They have a clear idea of the aspirant.)
Among those who did not make the cut was senatorial aspirant Beth Lopez who claimed that she was the “chosen one of God” and that she would “curse” anyone who would disqualify her senatorial bid again.
Daniel Magtira, who professed that he wanted to marry Sen. Imee Marcos, was also not included in the partial list of senatorial bets.
Meanwhile, the Comelec recorded a total of 221 petitions filed against nuisance candidates. Of this figure, 117 cases were filed against aspirants for the national posts while 104 were filed against those for local posts.
READ: LIST: Full list of 183 senatorial aspirants for 2025 polls
Garcia said on Thursday that the 117 cases will be given “due process” to explain and justify that they are not nuisance candidates.
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The poll body chief previously said that Comelec is eyeing to solve the pending cases of nuisance candidates before the end of November, in time for the printing of ballots in December.
