Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman George Garcia on Thursday said financially constrained aspirants for the 2025 midterm elections can maximize new technologies or social media platforms to campaign for votes.
This developed as the Comelec committed that no one vying for an elective position in the upcoming polls will be disqualified due to financial status.
“Maaaring nu’ng mga sinaunang pangangampanya, talagang kakailanganing puntahan mo ang bawat isla ng ating bansa, ang bawat munisipyo, at ang bawat siyudad. Sa kasalukuyan, dahil sa makabagong teknolohiya puwede na ang pangangampanya ay sa pamamagitan ng social media,” Garcia said in a Super Radyo dzBB interview.
(Before, candidates really needed to visit every island of our country, every municipality, and every city. But now due to modern technology, it is already possible to campaign through social media.)
“Hindi mo naman kailangan ng gano’n kadaming pera upang makapangamapanya sa pamamagitan ng social media, halimbawa. Basta ikaw ay magaling lamang at artistic, and at the same time medyo magaling kang gumawa ng mga ipo-post sa social media, pupuwede ka nang mangampanya,” he added.
(You don’t need that much money to campaign through social media, for example. As long as you are good and artistic, and can create materials for social media posting, then you can already campaign.)
The Supreme Court earlier ruled that unpopularity and non-membership in a political party are insufficient grounds to declare an individual as a nuisance candidate.
Based on Comelec Rules of Procedure Part V, Rule 24, any candidate is identified to have no bona fide intention to run for public office if they put the election process in “mockery or disrepute or to cause confusion among the voters by the similarity of the names of the registered candidates or who by other acts or circumstances.”
This may then result in their declaration as a nuisance candidate and their certificate of candidacy being denied due course or canceled.
The Comelec has committed to resolve cases involving nuisance candidates for the 2025 midterm elections by the end of November this year.
