ELECTIONS chairman George Garcia yesterday said the first and second divisions of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) have declared 117 senatorial aspirants in the May 2025 polls as nuisance candidates.
In an interview, Garcia said the 117 are now disqualified from running in next year’s polls.
He said six have appealed their disqualifications before the en banc.
“Hopefully, we can resolve them (MRs) until next week,” he added.
Garcia said the Commission will begin resolving petitions for nuisance bets involving local aspirants this week. He said they are eyeing to resolve all cases by the end of November.
To recall, 183 individuals filed their certificates of candidacy (COCs) for senator at the Tent City of the Manila Hotel from October 1 to 8.
Of the 183, the Comelec has included 66 in the partial/initial list of aspirants via Minute Resolution No. 24-0824.
The remaining 117 COC filers, on the other hand, faced petitions to declare as nuisance candidates filed by the Comelec Law Department.
In a related development, the Comelec said no petitions to declare as nuisance candidates have been filed against aspirants in the Bangsamoro Parliamentary Elections (BPE) 2025.
“Nobody filed petitions to declare as nuisance candidates in the Bangsamoro,” said Garcia while noting that the deadline to file such petitions was last November 14.
The Comelec conducted the filing of COCs for parliamentary district representatives, and Manifestations of Intent to Participate (MIPs) for regional parliamentary political parties (RPPP) last November 4 to 9.
There were 111 COCs filed by aspirants for parliamentary district representatives, including 41 in Lanao del Sur, 15 in Maguindanao del Norte, 15 in Maguindanao del Sur, 15 in Basilan, 10 in Tawi-Tawi, 10 in Cotabato City, and 5 in the Special Geographic Area (SGA) in Cotabato.
On the other hand, 7 RPPPs filed their MIPs, along with their List of Nominees totaling to 279 nominees.
