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Unpopularity not basis to declare candidate nuisance, Supreme Court tells Comelec

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<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img alt="The Supreme Court building in Padre Faura, Manila on August 24, 2022. George Calvelo, ABS-CBN News/File" src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2022/life/09/10/20220824-supreme-court-facade-gc-2.jpg"/><figcaption>The Supreme Court building in Padre Faura, Manila on August 24, 2022. George Calvelo, ABS-CBN News/File</figcaption></figure></div> MANILA — The Supreme Court has ruled that those who are unknown or unpopular should not be automatically declared as nuisance candidates.&quot;Declaring one a nuisance candidate simply because he or she is not known to the entire country reduces the electoral process—a sacred instrument of democracy—to a mere popularity contest,&quot; the high court said in a press statement released Saturday.&quot;The matter of the candidate being known (or unknown) should not be taken against the candidate but is best left to the electorate,&quot; it added.The Supreme Court issued the ruling as it &quot;partly granted&quot; the petition of animal rights advocate Norman Cordero Marquez, who was tagged by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) as a &quot;nuisance candidate&quot; in the 2022 national and local elections after he registered his candidacy for senator.<ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/01/20/22/comelec-declared-nuisance-senate-bet-gets-sc-relief">Comelec-declared &#x27;nuisance&#x27; Senate bet gets SC relief</a></li></ul><div>Comelec&#x27;s &#x27;errors&#x27;</div>The Supreme Court, in a 20-page decision penned by Justice Amy C. Lazaro-Javier, emphasized that a candidate is considered to have real intent to run when they can demonstrate seriousness in running for office. The Comelec Law Department, in October 2021, filed a petition to declare Marquez a nuisance candidate as he was &quot;virtually unknown to the entire country&quot; and lacked &quot;the support of a political party.&quot; The Comelec&#x27;s first division then ruled against him and held that he had the burden to prove and failed to show that he is &quot;known well enough nationwide.&quot;But the Supreme Court said not being popular is not among the grounds for declaration of a nuisance candidate under Section 69 of the Omnibus Election Code. &quot;Hence, the Comelec erred in using Marquez&#x27;s status of being virtually unknown in the entire country to exclude him as candidate,&quot; it said.&quot;Neither the law nor the election rules impose membership in a political party as a requirement on persons intending to run for public office.&quot;The high court also found that the Comelec was mistaken when it shifted the burden on Marquez to prove that he is not a nuisance candidate, &quot;a burden supposed to be borne by the Comelec Law Department which made the allegation that Marquez did not possess bona fide intention to run for senator.&quot; It said that the Comelec Law Department failed to substantiate its claims.Meanwhile, the court listed indicators of Marquez’s serious intent to run: • His COC is a sworn document declaring his candidacy; • This is not the first time he filed a COC; • He has a Program of Governance in the event he wins; • He exercised utmost vigilance in the protection of his candidacy; • After he was declared a nuisance candidate in the 2019 Elections, he availed of judicial remedies to assert his right, and prevailed before the Court; and • After his 2022 Elections COC was canceled again by the COMELEC, he raised the matter before this Court to protect his interest.The Supreme Court said that &quot;it is contrary to [the] human experience that a candidate would go through such a rigorous process, not once, but twice, if he or she has actually no intent to run.&quot; It reminded the Comelec that any measure meant to remove nuisance candidates should &quot;not be arbitrary and oppressive.&quot;This is not the first time Marquez challenged a Comelec order declaring him a nuisance candidate. In 2019, the Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling stating that &quot;Comelec committed grave abuse of discretion in declaring Marquez a nuisance candidate on the ground of failure to prove financial capacity to sustain the financial rigors of waging a nationwide campaign.&quot;While the court&#x27;s decision, released after the elections, did nothing to allow Marquez to run for Senate then, it has become a guiding principle for the poll body in cautiously branding an aspirant a &quot;nuisance.&quot;<ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/01/25/22/sc-backed-nuisance-bet-decries-ballot-exclusion-comelec-explains">SC-backed &#x27;nuisance&#x27; bet decries ballot exclusion; Comelec explains</a></li></ul>—With a report from Jauhn Etienne Villaruel, ABS-CBN News<div>RELATED VIDEO</div><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/z7Jp6aFgQCg?enablejsapi=1" width="560"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more News on <a href="https://www.iwanttfc.com/#!/browse/Genres/News/tag_id_genres/id_news" target="_blank">iWantTFC</a></div>

'The matter of the candidate being known (or unknown) should not be taken against the candidate but is best left to the electorate,' the High Court says.