ILOILO City – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) set the deadline of substitution of candidates for the May 2022 elections on Nov. 15.
According to Atty. Wilfred Jay Balisado, director of Comelec Region 6, all municipal, city and provincial election offices are open for candidates’ withdrawal and substitution from Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
After Nov. 15, Comelec will gather the certificates of candidacy (COCs) of the substitutes and forward them to the law department of the Comelec central office for checking.
Comelec-6 data showed 3,523 aspirants filed their COCs between Oct. 1 and Oct. 8: for representative (51), for governor (17), for vice governor (15), for Sangguniang Panlalawigan member (127), for city and municipal mayor (302), for city and municipal vice mayor (278), and for city and municipal councilors (2,733).
Broken down per province: Aklan – 438 COC filers; Antique – 546; Capiz – 445; Guimaras – 120; Iloilo including Iloilo City – 1,189; and Negros Occidental including Bacolod City – 785.
What happens during withdrawal and substitution?
“If you file your COC tapos may partido ka and mag-withdraw ka, ‘yong partido mo can nominate some other to fill in the blank,” Balisado said.
In Section 40 of Resolution No. 10717, Comelec said an aspirant/official candidate of a duly registered political party or coalition, who dies, withdraws or is disqualified for any cause after the last day for the filing of COCs may be substituted by an aspirant/official candidate belonging to, and nominated by, the same political party or coalition.
No substitute shall be allowed for any independent candidate.
The substitute of an aspirant who died, withdrew his candidacy, or was disqualified may file a COC for the office affected on or before Nov. 15 so that the name of the substitute will be reflected on the official ballots.
When filing a withdrawal, the concerned candidate who withdraws the candidacy must personally go to the election office, same with the substitute candidate.
However, in case there is a valid reason such as hospitalization, withdrawal can be done through a lawyer.
On the other hand, Balisado also said it is possible that there will be last minute changes in some candidates of a party.
“Mayroong last minute arrangement of aspirants kon ano talaga ang tatakbuhan nila. It’s more on strategy para makita nila kon sino ang tumakbo tapos mag-file naman ng iba, parang weak tayo dito, withdraw natin siya. Most likely ‘yan ang pangyayari,” Balisado added.
However, Balisado believes that very few will withdraw in Region 6, saying “85 or 90 percent” are sure aspirants in the next year’s polls./PN
