The Commission on Elections said Wednesday it would not accept substitutions for individuals whose certificates of candidacy for elective positions have been cancelled.
The Omnibus Election Code allows substitution if the original candidate dies, withdraws, or is disqualified, so long as the substitute candidate comes from the same party. For the May 2022 vote, the substitution deadline is on Nov. 15.
"Kapag cancellation, it's as if no COC was filed, therefore no right of substitution attaches," Jimenez told reporters.
Jimenez said the Comelec has so far received a total of 91 petitions for COC cancellation, including the one against presidential aspirant Bongbong Marcos.
The petitioners argue that the only son and namesake of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos is ineligible to run for any public office as a Quezon City court in 1995 found him guilty of failure to file income tax returns from 1982 to 1985.
Marcos described the petition as a "nuisance complaint" as he believed his tax cases have been resolved. Jimenez said the petition had been raffled off to the Comelec's second division, and the Marcos camp would be asked to answer the complaint in writing.
A receiving station for candidate substitution and withdrawal will be set up at the lobby of the Comelec main office in Palacio Del Gobernador in Intramuros, Manila, as the poll body was anticipating a huge number of candidates beating the deadline.
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