Chavit Singson withdraws from 2025 senatorial race

Businessman and former Ilocos Sur gov Chavit Singson shows his statement of withdrawal as he officially withdraws from the 2025 Senate race at the Comelec Headquarters in Palacio Del Gobernador, Manila on Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025. (INQUIRER.net/JOHN ERIC MENDOZA)
MANILA, Philippines — Senatorial aspirant Chavit Singson officially withdrew from the senatorial race in the upcoming midterm elections, citing health reasons.
Singson, a businessman and former Ilocos Sur governor, went to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) in Manila on Thursday to officially file his certificate of withdrawal from his Senate bid.
“I’ve already had pneumonia twice this year. I don’t want to wait for the third,” Singson told reporters in a chance interview after the filing.
Initially, Comelec chairman George Erwin Garcia said Singson’s name would remain in the ballots and the votes he would get would be declared as “stray.”
But with a new round of ballot printing scheduled, the poll body can now just easily remove Singson’s name.
The reprinting will be done by the poll body after the Supreme Court (SC) ordered the inclusion of a Comelec-designated nuisance candidate in the ballots.
Singson last served as the mayor of Narvacan, Ilocos Sur from 2019 to 2022.