Comelec chair: 6 nuisance candidates reject poll body ruling

FILE PHOTO: Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairperson George Garcia says six individuals who were labeled nuisance candidates in the 2025 polls are rejecting the body’s ruling. According to him, the six aspirants filed motions for reconsideration to contest the decisions of the Comelec’s first and second divisions, declaring them as nuisance bets.  (INQUIRER.net / NOY MORCOSO)

MANILA, Philippines — Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairman George Erwin Garcia said six individuals who were labeled nuisance candidates in the 2025 polls are rejecting the body’s ruling.

Garcia said the six aspirants filed motions for reconsideration to contest the decisions of the Comelec’s first and second divisions, declaring them as nuisance bets.

The Comelec chief named the six individuals applying to become senators as Felipe Fernandez Montealto Jr., Orlando Caranto De Guzman, John Rafael Campang Escobar, Roberto Sontosidad Sembrano, Fernando Fabian Diaz, Luther Gascon Meniano, and Alexander Cura Encarnacion.

The Comelec en banc will tackle and rule on their motions for reconsideration.

READ: Comelec releases initial list of 66 bets for 2025 Senate race

However, one of the six aspirants said he would elevate his case to the Supreme Court, which at times sided with Comelec-declared nuisance candidates.

“I’ll just push that my rights to suffrage should not be infringed by imposing several qualifications not sanctioned by the Constitution,” Montealto, a former Sangguniang Kabataan chairman in Iloilo City, told INQUIRER.net in a chance interview recently.

A total of 183 individuals filed their certificates of candidacy to run for senator in the May midterm elections next year.

Of the number, 117 were declared nuisance candidates and 66 were included in the poll body’s final ballot, which will be printed starting December.

Garcia noted that the Comelec is ahead of its end-November target in purging the ballot of nuisance bets.

“At least we resolved it early so they could avail their remedy,” he said.