DAVAO CITY — The 60 certificates of candidacy (COC) filed by this city’s political aspirants will be reviewed by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) before they can be included on the list of qualified candidates for the 2019 mid-term elections.
Comelec 11 (Davao) election officer, Jerry Mujal, said their central office’s legal department will assess the aspirants’ qualifications to determine who should be disqualified or declared as a nuisance candidate. He said the COCs will be handed over to their central office for review on October 20.
Mujal said a candidate can be declared a nuisance based on his or her intention, such as to mislead voters. This is especially true for nuisance candidates who have similar surnames as other established aspirants.
When asked about Marcelo Marcellones, who has consistently run in local elections as mayor, Mujal said he does not remember any instance that Marcellones had been declared a nuisance.
Marcellones, who has been running in the mayoral race since 1992, is again running for the post in May 2019 against incumbent Mayor Inday Sara Z. Duterte. He filed his COC on the last day of filing on Wednesday.
On the Comelec’s list of political aspirants, two are running for mayor — Mayor Sara and Marcellones, while Sebastian “Baste” Duterte will run unopposed.
Three are running for congressman in the 1st District – Paolo Duterte, a certain Susana Uyanguren of Catalunan Grande, and jeepney driver Rex Labis.
The other aspirants for Congress — Vincent Garcia for the 2nd District and Isidro Ungab for the 3rd District — are unopposed. The other 53 are aspiring for council seats, 35 of whom are official candidates of the Hugpong ng Pagbabago (HNP) and the Hugpong sa Tawong Lungsod (HTL) alliance.
During the deadline for the COC filing, Juvy Vidamo and Kenneth Jade Jumawid rushed to the Comelec office to submit their documents.
Mujal, however, rejected their COCs because they had not complied with the requirements when the 5 p.m. deadline struck.
Vidamo, who wanted to run for the congressional seat in the 2nd district, said she would contest the Comelec’s decision. (Lilian Mellejor/PNA)
