117 of 183 Senate aspirants declared nuisance bets

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has declared a total of 117 senatorial aspirants nuisance, possibly barring them from running in the May 2025 midterm elections.

Of the 117 declared nuisance candidates, Comelec Chairman George Garcia said six have filed motions for reconsideration (MRs) before the commission.

“As of today, all 117 petitions have been resolved by the two divisions and granted (to declare nuisance and cancel the certificate of candidacy),” Garcia said yesterday.

The Commission, Garcia added, will exert extra effort to resolve pending motions for reconsideration by next week.

If the Commission junks their motions, the six aspirants may turn to the Supreme Court, according to the poll chief.

Garcia said the Comelec will now start deliberating on cases against “nuisance” local aspirants and come up with decisions by the end of November.

A total of 183 aspirants filed their Certificates of Candidacy for senator but the Comelec only approved 66 and filed a petition to declare 117 as nuisance bets.

For the Bangsamoro Parliamentary Elections (BPE) 2025, Garcia said the Comelec has not received any petition to declare any of the aspirants as nuisance, before the Nov. 14 deadline for filing of such petition.

Meanwhile, Garcia also said the poll body would remain on guard against fake news and disinformation even if it has eased its requirement for registration of social media accounts and web pages.

In a radio interview, Garcia said they will not hesitate to file criminal charges against individuals found spreading misinformation and disinformation during the campaign.

“We will not mind the content or topics that politicians might release because there’s freedom of speech guaranteed under the Constitution. But if they churn out lies, then that’s where the Comelec steps in,” Garcia said.

He said the Omnibus Election Code prohibits the spreading of lies, and the Comelec may request social media platforms to have offensive posts removed.

“In social media, we might wrongly perceive some posts as real news even if they really are lies. So we really need help on this,” he maintained.

Garcia noted that the Comelec issued guidelines for the use of social media during the campaign period to prevent misinformation, disinformation and fake news.

Under the guidelines, candidates and political parties are required to register all their social media accounts with the Comelec.

The poll body amended the guidelines and removed the requirement for private individuals to register their social media accounts, webpages, vlogs and other similar platforms as part of the poll body’s efforts to regulate online campaigning for the May 2025 national and local polls.
“Based on our regulation, only candidates, political parties, party-list nominees or party-list organizations are required to register their social media accounts. Let me say this again: private individuals are not covered,” he said, noting that some candidates have begun registering their social media accounts.

There will be no extension of the Dec. 13 deadline for registration of social media accounts.