It is good that the Comelec eventually came to its senses and reinstated former Cebu governor Lito Osmeña as a candidate for the Senate, after having initially disqualified him as a "nuisance candidate" with no ability to mount a national campaign.
The initial disqualification of Lito was wrong in many respects. It humiliated somebody who, as Cebu governor, initiated the so-called Ceboom, a spurt of rapid economic growth that even outpaced those of Manila and the entire nation.
It desecrated the memory of his grandfather, Don Sergio Osmeña Sr., one of the country's most respected presidents from whose progeny proceeded some of the most well-known political leaders Cebu or any other region has produced.
It shamed Cebuanos who have always made a mark for themselves in any election as a people who would choose wisely and not countenance sham and fakery. Many a candidate have tried to entice Cebuano voters with imagery and rhetoric but have all failed.
From among those initially disqualified by the Comelec, none could have been farthest from being a nuisance candidate for the Senate than Lito, that very same person whom the same Comelec allowed to run once for vice president and then again for president.
But the worst wrong of all is for the Comelec to dismiss anyone as a nuisance who is not otherwise disqualified as a voter. It simply does not follow that one who can vote cannot be voted upon.
For what really is a nuisance? The term is so subjective that in the absence of any clearcut guidelines defining what constitutes a nuisance, the Comelec must be restrained from making any arbitrary conclusions by itself.
How can a group of seven people arrogate unto themselves the right to determine something that, by inference, requires a far more careful and deliberate study by a separate and distinct group of professionals steeped in the behavioral sciences.
Unless a person is a certified nut case, then the Comelec has no right to declare anyone a nuisance candidate. For that should be the only basis for disqualification, in addition to criminal conviction.
The inability to mount a national campaign for reasons of funding or health cannot be made basis for disqualification because they are unconstitutional. The lack of money or poor health is the personal lookout of a candidate, not the Comelec's.