Over 200 petitions filed vs 'nuisance bets'

THE Commission on Elections (Comelec) has received 246 petitions seeking the removal of candidates for the 2025 polls. The Comelec said there were petitions to declare 117 senatorial and 104 aspirants for local positions as nuisance candidates, 24 were for the cancellation of certificates of candidacy (CoC) and one for disqualification. The petitions to declare 117 senatorial aspirants as nuisance were motu proprio filed by the Comelec law division. Comelec Chairman George Erwin Garcia said on Thursday that special action cases to declare 117 national and 104 aspirants as nuisance bets can be resolved by the commission before the end of November. The petitions seeking the cancellation of CoCs or the disqualification of a candidate require a longer process. He said the petitions to declare an aspirant a nuisance candidate can be resolved immediately by the commission en banc, but petitions for disqualification or cancellation of CoC need to pass the division level and then the en banc if there is an appeal. Garcia said the Comelec needs to resolve the petitions before the start of the printing of ballots by December. "If the nuisance candidates are allowed to run, they will be voted. But if the Comelec or the Supreme Court would later decide that they are nuisance candidates, all their votes will be credited to the legitimate candidate," he said. Comelec spokesman John Rex Laudiangco gave assurances that all aspirants with petitions against them would be given the chance to give their side. The Omnibus Election Code defines a nuisance candidate as someone who files a CoC to put the election process in mockery or disrepute; or to cause confusion among the voters by the similarity of the names of the registered candidates; or which clearly demonstrates that the candidate has no bona fide intention to run for the office and to prevent a faithful determination of the true will of the electorate.