Comelec Cebu City: Not all aspirants will become candidates

Filing of candidacy in Cebu City in October 2021. | Dyrecka Letigio

CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Cebu City Commission on Elections (Comelec) reminds aspirants that filing the Certificate of Candidacy (COC) is not a guarantee of their becoming official candidates. 

Lawyer Chauncey Boholst, North District election officer said that those who filed their COCs in the past days until the end of the filing schedule would have their application sent to the COMELEC national office for final deliberation. 

The Comelec will deliberate whether an individual has the capacity to run a campaign. 

Any election protest will also be taken into consideration before the individual will be approved as an official candidate of the 2022 elections. 

“Tan-awon pa man na sa atong national office kung they have the capacity to launch a campaign, if not they will be declared nuisance candidates,” said Boholst. 

(The national office will still check if they have the capacity to launch a campaign. If not, then they will be declared as nuisance candidates.)

On Monday, October 4, 2021, an individual in Cebu City filed his candidacy for mayor as an independent candidate. 

The family of the individual has reached out to media outlets asking that this aspirant’s personal details be removed because the family claimed that the individual was suffering from a mental illness. 

Out of respect to the family’s request, CDN Digital has chosen to keep the identity of the aspirant hidden and to take down any earlier social media posts related to the aspirant. 

Boholst said that when the aspirant filed his candidacy, there was no sign of mental incapacity. 

“Katong nagexplain ko nga sayop iyahang COC, okay ra man siya. But if that is the case, moagi pa man og process pud ang COC,”said Boholst.

(That part where I explained to him that he made a mistake in his COC, he was okay with it. But if that is the case, the COC will still go through a process.)

Should the family request for the candidacy of the individual to be rescinded, Boholst said they might seek help from the COMELEC office in filing for a possible protest. 

However, he said that any nuisance candidate would most likely be removed from the official ballot anyway after the COMELEC national office would review all COCs.     /rcg

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