Matula’s party sad as Comelec declares their 9 Senate hopefuls nuisance
Comelec headquarters in Intramuros, Manila. INQUIRER FILES
MANILA, Philippines — The party led by senatorial hopeful Sonny Matula is “saddened” as the Commission on Elections (Comelec) declared nine aspirants in their slate nuisance bets.
Oscar Morado, senior vice president of the Workers Party of the Philippines (WPP), said party membership is not an “absolute assurance” that an aspirant will make it to the Comelec’s final list of candidates.
“Of course, we were saddened that our Senate slate is almost wiped out,” Morado told INQUIRER.net over the phone, partly in Filipino.
Only Matula made it to the 66 aspirants included in Comelec’s initial list of candidates for the 2025 polls.
However, the following senatorial aspirants of WPP were declared as nuisance candidates:
Article continues after this advertisement- Pedro Gonzales Ordiales
- Roel Apduhan Lamoste
- Monique Solis Kokkinaras
- Romeo Castro Macarrag
- Celeste Ilao Aguilar
- Shirly Vibares
- Subair Guintanum Mustapha
- Sonny Miranda Pimentel
- Enrique Olanca Olonan
So far, Comelec said only Mustapha and Ordiales are among the 17 aspirants who filed their motion for reconsideration (MR) before its en banc to contest the poll body divisions’ nuisance candidate declaration.
Article continues after this advertisementREAD: Number of ‘nuisance’ bets who contest Comelec tag now at 17
Morado said he has no information on other WPP candidates who have filed their MRs.
If the Comelec en banc still junked their petition, Mustapha and Ordiales could still elevate their case to the Supreme Court (SC). However, time is of the essence for the two aspirants since Comelec will have to begin printing the final list of senatorial aspirants in December.
READ: Quiboloy asks Comelec to tag him as independent bet in 2025 polls
Morado admitted that it could be an uphill battle for Mustapha and Ordiales.
“On our part, we hope their names be included in the printing of ballots in December,” Morado said. “Now, if they will take it to the Supreme Court, that will take some time; the election might be over before the decision is made.”
“We will support them up to the final hours of the Supreme Court decision, but the logic is, they would not be official candidates of the party for the 2025 elections because their names would not be included in the ballot,” he added.
In 2022, the SC ruled in favor of an aspirant whom Comelec declared a nuisance candidate, but only after the elections that year.
In 2021, Comelec denied Norman Marquez’s senatorial bid for being “virtually unknown” and having no political party, but the SC said any Filipino who runs for public office cannot be deemed a “nuisance” and disqualified for lack of fame, money, or party machinery.
Marquez’s matter was already moot back then, but the high court said it found it necessary to resolve the case because “the same situation may recur in future elections.”
