EDITORIAL - Stopping nuisance candidates

A person officially declared as a nuisance candidate played a role in the feud between the Teves and Degamo clans of Negros Oriental.

In the general elections last year, Grego Gaudia filed a certificate of candidacy for governor of the province under the name Ruel Degamo, against rivals Roel Degamo and Pryde Henry Teves. With the Degamo votes split between “Ruel” and Roel, Teves emerged as the winner.

It took several months before the Commission on Elections ruled on an electoral protest filed by Roel Degamo and declared Ruel a nuisance candidate. With votes for Ruel credited to Roel, the real Degamo was declared the winner in the race.

Unseated by the Comelec, Teves stepped down on Oct. 11. Degamo took over the capitol a week later. Over four months later, he was shot dead right inside his home together with eight others in a daring raid. The Department of Justice has tagged Teves’ brother, Negros Oriental 3rd District Rep. Arnolfo Teves Jr., as the suspected principal mastermind.

The Degamos had openly suspected the Teves clan of fielding Gaudia to sabotage the candidacy of Roel Degamo. Why Gaudia, alias Ruel Degamo 2, was even allowed by the Comelec to run is a mystery. The fielding of candidates with a name so similar to another has been a common way of sabotaging rivals in Philippine elections.

With Degamo dead and the principal suspect at large, the Comelec is hoping to correct this mode of undermining the integrity of the vote. Comelec Chairman George Garcia wants not only nuisance candidates but also their accomplices – persons who instigated them to file their candidacies – to be sent to prison for up to six years, fined at least P500,000 and disqualified from holding public office.

Grego Gaudia, who ran as an independent, has disappeared. Maybe he will run under a different name in the next elections. Garcia says there is no law prohibiting a nuisance candidate from running again. Even if the person is subsequently disqualified, the candidacy can cause confusion, fuel tension and undermine the vote.

It’s unclear if there is a serious move in Congress to impose hefty penalties on nuisance candidates. After all, lawmakers themselves are among those who field nuisance candidates to sabotage their rivals during elections.

What the Comelec says it is doing is speeding up the resolution of all nuisance cases before the elections on Oct. 30 this year for the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan, or at least before the midterm elections in May 2025. With the violence in Negros Oriental, however, the Comelec should also take the opportunity to push for the needed legislation to put an end to nuisance candidacies.