Comelec chief warns of including bets with SC appeals on ballots

Commission on Elections Chairperson George Garcia. INQUIRER / NINO JESUS ORBETA

MANILA, Philippines — Including the names of disqualified aspirants with pending appeals before the Supreme Court (SC) on the ballot can create a “dangerous precedent” in future elections, Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman George Erwin Garcia said on Thursday.

He said only a temporary restraining order (TRO) issued by the SC can halt the executory nature of the poll body’s decisions “after the lapse of time.”

“This will create a dangerous precedent that in the future, all candidates who will be declared nuisance, candidacies cancelled or disqualified will invoke our action today to maintain their names on the ballots,” Garcia told INQUIRER.net in a Viber message.

Garcia previously said that even if hundreds of aspirants whose candidacies were canceled or disqualified take their cases to the SC, it does not mean the poll body would include their names on the ballots.

READ: Disqualified bets with pending SC appeals can’t be included on ballots

However, according to election lawyer Romulo Macalintal, there is an “imperative need” for the Comelec to include the names of disqualified bets with pending appeals before the SC.

He said “it would not be too much burden for the Comelec” to add the names of the remaining candidates with pending appeals “to ensure that no further wastage of funds and delay in the printing of ballots in case the SC issued another TRO in any of these pending appeals.”

Macalintal also said the Comelec “should be more practical in handling this problem.”

As of January 21, the SC resolved 11 of the 25 election-related petitions seeking TROs submitted since the end of the filing of certificates of candidacies on October 9, 2024.

READ: SC issues more TROs  vs Comelec DQ rulings

Last Tuesday, the SC issued TROs to the poll body regarding the cases of five poll aspirants, halting the printing of ballots. The poll body, which began printing ballots on January 6, already produced approximately six million ballots by that time.

The SC recently reversed the Comelec’s ruling declaring senatorial aspirants Subair Guinthum Mustapha and Norman Mangusin, also known as Francis Leo Marcos, as nuisance candidates.

The Comelec said the names of Mustapha and Mangusin would now be included on the ballots.

However, Mangusin’s withdrawal from the Senate race on Thursday prompted the poll body to defer again the printing of ballots to Monday, January 27, from its target schedule on Friday.