With COC filing over, Comelec cleanses candidates’ list

MANILA, Philippines —   A day after the end of the filing of certificates of candidacy (COC), the Commission on Elections (Comelec) initiated the cleansing of the list of aspirants for the May 2025 midterm elections.

“The law department is now studying who should be removed based on perpetual disqualification from holding public office,” Comelec Chairman George Garcia said at a press conference yesterday.

Aside from those with an order of perpetual disqualification from holding public office, Garcia said the commission will soon undertake a cleansing process to remove the so-called “nuisance” from the final list of candidates.

“There will be a ‘cleansing’ to determine who are just there to confuse the voters or those making a mockery of the electoral process,” he pointed out.

Garcia stressed that the lack of resources or political party will not be used as basis by the commission in disqualifying an aspirant to run in next year’s polls.

Within two to three weeks, Garcia said the Comelec will be posting on its website the list of all those who filed their COC for the May 2025 elections for public scrutiny.

The Comelec is expected to come out with the official list of candidates before the end of November.

Garcia said the commission received a total of 43,033 COCs from those vying for national and local positions nationwide. Almost 80 percent of the aspirants are males.

Of those who submitted their COC to the commission, 183 are running for senator while 190 are seeking a party-list seat.

The number of aspirants who filed their COC for next year’s polls, Garcia said, is fewer compared to the 44,801 filers in 2019 and 47,583 in the 2022 elections.

According to Garcia, the organizations and political parties that filed their certificate of nomination and acceptance jumped to 190 because even those without necessary accreditation submitted their CONA.

He noted that the commission only accredited a total of 160 organizations and political groups for the 2025 party-list elections. Among these, five groups did not submit their CONA.