THE Commission on Elections (Comelec) yesterday issued a stern warning to candidates who will be running in the May 2025 national and local polls to register the social media accounts they will use in their campaigning activities or else face raps.
In an interview, Comelec chairman George Garcia said the deadline for the registration of the online campaign platforms is on December 13, 2024.
“It’s provided in our guidelines so don’t play hard ball with the Comelec. We can file an election offense and disqualify you. It would be better if they will just follow the rules,” Garcia said, adding that registering the online campaign platforms is one way to ensure that all candidates will be compliant to Comelec rules and guidelines.
“If you are not planning to take advantage or commit unethical acts, just register your social media accounts. It is important so that we can monitor your actions, contents, and expenses,” he said.
Based on the latest data from the Comelec, 62 political aspirants have physically submitted their registration forms, while 179 local bets, three senatorial aspirants, and four party-list organizations have submitted their forms online.
“Those are very low numbers considering there are 43,000 candidates and 156 party-list organizations,” Garcia said.
Garcia said they expect more candidates to submit as the deadline draws nearer.
“In the Philippines, as we all know, they will wait for the deadline to draw closer before getting registered,” he said.
While online campaign platforms must be duly registered, Garcia said the Comelec will not interfere in their contents because the poll body believes in the freedom of expression and freedom of speech provided under the Constitution.
“It’s the clear stand of the Comelec that we cannot interfere in the content on social media, in the same way that we cannot meddle with the contents of campaign materials and tarpaulins,” said the poll chief.
He, however, said it will be a different case if the content is in violation of the acceptable moral standards.
“This won’t be the case if the content is against the accepted moral or ethical standards,” he said.
In addition, he said the Comelec, as well as social media platforms themselves, are expected to intervene in cases of misinformation and disinformation on social media.
“We will surely have them removed immediately by social media platforms… They have committed to remove them within the day if the request comes from the Comelec,” said Garcia
As for social media accounts not acknowledged by candidates as well as “troll farms,” Garcia assured that the Comelec will also be on the lookout for them.
“If we are able to trace that it is actually theirs (candidates), we can also file charges against them,” he said.
Meanwhile, Garcia said they are expecting more petitions to cancel certificates of candidacy (COCs) to be filed in the coming days since the deadline is fast approaching.
“For sure, the number will increase to thousands,” he said.
Under Comelec rules, petitions to deny or cancel COCs must be filed not later than a non-extendible period of 25 days from the time of filing of the COC.
The poll chief said the forthcoming publication of COCs in the Comelec website is expected to aid such expectations as the public will be able to see the qualifications of the political aspirants.
“We will publish the COCs of all candidates most probably by next week,” said Garcia.
As of October 19, the Comelec has received 43 petitions to deny or cancel COCs, and 223 petitions to declare as nuisance candidates. Of the total, 117 petitions were filed motu proprio against senatorial aspirants, while 106 petitions were filed by petitioners against local bets.
“It’s (filing of petition against nuisance candidates) already close,” said Garcia.
Under the rules, petitions for declaration as nuisance candidates can be filed within a period of five days from the last day of the filing of COCs, which was last October 8.
The Comelec chair reiterated that such petitions will be resolved by the poll body before December. “We will resolve all of these before the end of November because no nuisance candidates must be included in the official ballots so as to prevent causing confusion to voters,” he said.
Garcia said nuisance candidates cases have already been raffled to the Comelec First Division (107) and Second Division (113).
On the other hand, the Comelec and its automated election system (AES) provider, Miru Systems, called on interested parties to participate in the Local Source Code Review (LSCR).
In a statement, the Comelec and Miru said they are hoping that more election stakeholders will participate in the LSCR of the AES to prove their commitment to transparency.
“We will be as transparent as possible. We are going to involve everybody. We hope everyone will participate in this local source code review,” Garcia said.
“We welcome the opportunity to demonstrate the strength of our software, just as we have been welcoming the demonstration of our automated counting machine (ACM) technology since the start of our contract with the Comelec,” said Miru Vice President for Overseas Sales Ken Cho.
Invited to participate are members of the Comelec Advisory Council, Joint Congressional Oversight Committee, the Technical Evaluation Committee, political parties and coalitions, accredited citizen’s arms, reputable IT groups, and civil society organizations.
The LSCR review will cover the source codes of all systems that will used be in the elections, including the Full Automation System with Transparency Audit/Count (FASTrAC), Election Management System (EMS), Automated-Counting Machine (ACM), Consolidated Canvassing System (CCS), the Secure Electronic Transmission Services (SETS), and the Online Voting and Counting System (OVCS).
“They are invited to ensure all systems function as expected and that the code is clean. This review will also help to identify any critical issues or errors that could potentially impact the outcome of the election,” said Cho.
“Let us keep in mind that while everybody is focused on the machines, one of the most important component is the transmission of the results,” Garcia said.
Under the Poll Automation Law, the Commission must promptly make the source code of the AES available and open to any interested political party or groups, which may conduct their own review.
The LSCR of the 2025 AES is set from October to December 2024 at the 16th floor of Circuit Corporate Center One in Makati City.
In a related development, Pro V&V is now one step closer to bagging anew the contract for the independent certification services by an established international certification entity (ICE) for the May 2025 polls.
This after the Alabama-based company was found by the Comelec – Special Bids and Awards Committee (SBAC) as having the Single Calcula ted Bid for the P127,469,970.00 project.
According to the Comelec, Pro V&V, which also conducted the international certification of the 2019 and 2022 AES, submitted the lone bid for the project with an amount of P127,120,455.00.
“The SBAC proceeded to the Post-Qualification Evaluation of the Single Calculated Bidder, Pro V & V, for the AES certification services by an ICE for the 2025 NLE,” said the Comelec.
Under the law, an established international certification entity to be chosen by the Commission must categorically state that the AES, including its hardware and software components, is operating properly, securely, and accurately, in accordance with the provisions of the law.
