Why is the government corrupt? Why is the Philippine government a kleptocratic kakistocracy? According to the Commission on Elections it's the voter's fault. Vote better, says the Comelec all the while ignoring the fact they are the gatekeepers of the ballot. They choose who the public chooses! The choice voters have is an illusion.
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| https://www.inquirer.net/465841/comelec-chief-ph-mess-due-to-voters-themselves/ |
Now comes a bit of reality check from Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chair George Erwin Garcia as he urged voters to choose wisely in the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (BSKE) to be held on Nov. 2.
“Only voters, or those citizens who do not choose the right leaders, can be blamed for the country’s mess. We should always remember this,” Garcia said during a voters’ education forum in the Biliran Province State University in Naval, Biliran, on Saturday.
He reminded voters, particularly the youth, that the barangay and youth council officials they would elect in November would be the “first responders” to the needs of the residents of far-flung barangays.
“We should not elect leaders based on social media, television, radio and newspapers. We should use our heart and our conscience in voting, especially for the first-time voters,” he said. “Your vote should be based on your study of who rightfully deserves to be officials.”
What an admission. The Comelec knowingly allows corrupt politicians to run for office. These include men such as Bong Revilla and families such as the Estradas, Marcoses, Duterte's, and Cayetanos among others. On the other hand they disallow small timers and also-rans as alleged nuisance candidates because they are not well known and don't have enough money to launch a national campaign.
However the Supreme Court has ruled that none of those qualities makes one a nuisance candidate.
https://sc.judiciary.gov.ph/sc-unknowns-unaffiliated-are-not-nuisance-candidates/
https://sc.judiciary.gov.ph/sc-lack-of-campaign-funds-does-not-make-one-a-nuisance-candidate/
It used to be that the Comelec transferred votes for so-called nuisance candidates to other candidates. In December 2025 the Supreme Court ruled against that practice.
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| https://www.rappler.com/philippines/supreme-court-decision-votes-nuisance-candidates-december-2025/ |
The Supreme Court (SC) has ruled that votes clearly cast for a nuisance candidate shall be considered stray votes and not be counted in favor of any candidate.
This landmark decision, penned by Associate Justice Maria Filomena Singh and was made public on Thursday, December 4, abandoned the precedent applied in past cases.
According to the SC, these are now the effects of the new rule on cases involving nuisance candidates:
- Votes clearly cast for legitimate candidates are counted in favor of said legitimate candidates
- Votes clearly cast for the nuisance candidate, whose certificate of candidacy is cancelled or not given due course, are considered stray and should not be counted in favor of any other candidate
The High Court looked into the existing jurisprudence related to the case at hand, such as Dela Cruz v. Comelec (Commission on Elections), Santos v. Comelec, and Zapanta v. Comelec.
In these past cases wherein the results were from manual elections, the prevailing doctrine was that “[the] votes cast for the nuisance candidate, or such votes where the intent of the voter cannot be determined on the face of the ballot, are counted in favor of the legitimate candidate, as no other candidate is deemed to have run for that position as of the day of the election.”
According to the SC, there will no longer be “vague votes” under the automated election system “because the voting machines will base their count on the full names with aliases of each candidate, as shaded in the ballots.”
Unlike in the manual elections where voters had to write the name of candidates, there’s no longer any room for confusion under the automated elections because voters shade ballots instead, the SC added.
“The Court emphasized that the previous rule had no basis in law as the clear tenor of Sections 69 and 211 of the Omnibus Election Code provides that a nuisance candidate is deemed to have never filed a certificate of candidacy and therefore the votes cast for such nuisance candidate are considered stray. Thus, there can be no crediting of votes cast for a nuisance candidate in favor of any other candidate,” the SC said.
“According to the Court, a rule that is without unequivocal basis in law and supplants people’s choices on the basis of perceived errors in the way they had cast their vote usurps the very sovereign will that the rule intends to protect,” it added.
The case stemmed from a certiorari and prohibition petition filed by Marcos “Macoy” Cabrera Amutan, who ran as a board member of Cavite’s 5th District in the 2022 elections.
He was initially proclaimed as one of the winners. However, after losing candidate Alvic Madlangsakay Poblete was declared a nuisance candidate, the votes cast for Poblete were counted in favor of another candidate, Francisco Paolo Poblete Crisostomo.
Later, the Comelec annulled Amutan’s proclamation and declared Crisostomo as among the winning candidates.
Taking votes from candidate and applying it to another candidate? That is the definition of election subversion. And it was common practice until just last year.
The fact of the matter is while Filipinos do make bad choices, bad choices are all they have! The Comelec gatekeeps who can run for office and thus who can govern the Philippines. If they allowed all comers who field a certificate of candidacy to run there might be better choices. Blaming the public for kelptocratic politicians is vile. That the Comelec can act so high and mighty is one more reason to declare: No More Hell Run By Filipinos!
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