The Commission on Elections (COMELEC) pledged to carefully study recent Supreme Court rulings concerning nuisance candidates.
In an interview, COMELEC Chairperson George Erwin Garcia emphasized the need to scrutinize the High Court’s decisions on “who are not really serious in running for public office.”
“COMELEC needs to study these SC decisions carefully because the SC has already made many decisions on nuisance candidates,” Garcia said.
He explained that there are now fewer grounds for declaring a candidate a nuisance.
“For example, an aspirant cannot be declared as nuisance, if he/she has no political party, low votes obtained in the previous election, no money or funds (to finance a national campaign), similar nicknames. There are now fewer ways or reasons on how to declare nuisance candidates,” he added.
Garcia assured that COMELEC will follow the High Court’s rulings.
“We will abide by what the Supreme Court said because it is the law and must be followed. COMELEC should implement it,” he said, noting that laws still exist allowing the poll body to declare a candidate a nuisance.
“There is still a law for the COMELEC to declare a nuisance, we just need to find out what other move there is for us to act as a basis to declare a candidate a nuisance,” Garcia added.
Earlier this week, the Supreme Court ruled that having a nickname similar to another candidate in a previous election is insufficient grounds for declaring someone a nuisance candidate.
The case involved Charles “DB” Savellano, whose certificate of candidacy (COC) for representative of the 1st District of Ilocos Sur was previously cancelled by COMELEC during the 2025 elections.
Savellano filed a petition with the SC, which granted his reinstatement in an en banc decision promulgated on November 11, 2025.
The petition was filed by then-candidate Ronald Singson, who eventually won the 2025 elections.