Comelec thumbs down proposal to postpone COC filing period

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections does not see the need to postpone the period for filing of Certificates of Candidacy to December as proposed by one House lawmaker.

Thumbing down Rep. Bienvenido Abante (Manila, 6th District)’s resolution proposing the delay, Comelec Chairperson George Garcia said moving the filing of COCs from the first week of October to December would disrupt ongoing preparations for the 2025 midterm polls.

“Delaying the filing of Certificates of Candidacy will have far-reaching implications. Maraming matatamaan (A lot would be affected), printing of the ballots, extending the filing of pre-election cases and their resolutions,” Garcia said in a report by state-run Philippine News Agency.

House Resolution 1942 seeks to push back the COC filing period by around two months to give election aspirants more time to mull on their candidacy.

Abante filed the resolution after the lower chamber passed House Bill 10524, which removes withdrawal as a ground for substitution of candidates — a practice that Garcia earlier tagged as a “deception” of voters.

Garcia on Monday said the poll body will stick to its present October 1 to 8 schedule for the filing of COCs to allot enough time for the printing of 70 million ballots.

The Comelec chief added that their simultaneous preparations for the midterm polls and the first Bangasamoro parliamentary elections require strict adherence to the original timeline.

“Kung talagang tatakbo kayo, bakit ipagpapaliban pa ng dalawang buwan? Kung tatakbo, tatakbo. Kung hindi, hindi (If you really want to run, why postpone it for two months. Just run if you want to. If not, then don't run),” he said.

Using placeholder candidates to buy time and generate hype for a candidate was a tactic used by then-Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, who substituted for PDP-Laban’s Martin Diño in the 2016 presidential race. 

This was later repeated by Duterte's daughter, then-Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte, who entered the 2022 vice-presidential race as a substitute for Lakas-CMD’s Lyle Uy just two days before the deadline. 

The Omnibus Election Code allows for candidate substitution after the filing period to protect parties from being disadvantaged if a candidate withdraws due to death, disqualification or personal reasons.

However, in a 2021 analysis for Fulcrum, University of the Philippines political science professor Jorge Tigno argued that the growing use of this substitution strategy reveals "an abuse of electoral laws and a lack of transparency in candidate selection."