THE Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday issued two temporary restraining orders (TRO) against the Commission on Elections (Comelec), ordering the poll body to add two political aspirants to the ballots for the 2025 national and local elections in May.
The court en banc issued a TRO after Senatorial aspirant Francis Leo Antonio Marcos challenged a Comelec resolution labeling him a nuisance candidate and revoked his Certificate of Candidacy (CoC).
Spokesperson Camille Sue Mae L. Ting cited Comelec’s argument, saying Mr. Marcos did not show genuine intent to run for office, even though he was allowed to run for the 2022 Senatorial race, where he received over 4 million votes.
“The SC also ordered the Comelec to comment on his petition within a non-extendible period of five days from receipt of notice,” she said in a press briefing in Manila City.
The top court also ruled Noel E. Rosal is eligible to run as Albay governor after the poll body canceled his CoC because the Ombudsman dismissed him from service, carrying the penalty of perpetual disqualification to hold public office.
The high tribunal also gave Comelec five days to comment.
According to Ms. Ting, the high court received a total of 25 petitions against the Comelec from disqualified individuals. Another 22 were filed for party-list representative aspirants.
In total, the high court has so far issued 11 TROs.
Ms. Ting said the top court is fast-tracking the procedures of issuing TROs, noting that many of the cases with TRO prayers were only filed towards the end of December or the first week of January.
Comelec paused its ballot printing last week after the top court issued five TROs. About 6 million ballots were wasted, amounting to about P22 each. — Chloe Mari A. Hufana