The Commission on Elections (COMELEC) will destroy six million newly printed ballots as a consequence of the Supreme Court’s (SC) Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) favoring the earlier disqualified aspirants for the 2025 Midterm Elections.
COMELEC’s Spokesperson Atty. John Rex Laudiangco explained that they will destroy the commission’s pre-printed ballots through microshredding to ensure that they are no longer useful.
Prior to this, the COMELEC divisions disqualified several aspirants for the forthcoming elections but they sought issuance of TRO from the SC.
On January 14, the SC issued TROs which prevented the disqualification of five aspirants in the coming polls.
These aspirants include Caloocan 2nd District congressional bet Edgar Erice; Senatoriable Subair Guinthum Mustapha; Ilocos Sur First District congressional bet Charles Savellano; Zambales gubernatorial bet Chito Bulato Bantilla and San Juan City First District Council bet Florendo de Ramos Ritualo Jr.
SC Spokesperson Camille Sue Mae Ting said that following the issuance of the TROs the names of the aspirants should be reinstated in the ballots.
“So the TRO’s prohibit COMELEC from disqualifying them, so this means their names would have to be included in the ballot”. Ting said.
The commission’s activities scheduled for the coming days such as the certification of internet voting as well as scheduled mock elections in various places in the country will not be resumed.
COMELEC also said that there will be amendments to the candidates’ database and renewed ballot printing once the changes to the database and election management system are implemented.
(COMELEC photo)
Abner is an award-winning journalist. He received the prestigious 2015 Titus Brandsma Award for Community Communication in the Philippines and participated in the 2016 International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) of the United States of America, sponsored by the US Embassy in the Philippines. Founder of WATCH NORTH COTABATO, a media-citizens’ transparency group. He worked as a correspondent for the Philippine Daily Inquirer and CNN Philippines. His experience in broadcasting includes anchoring for Brigada News FM in Kidapawan and General Santos City and Brigada News TV. He anchors Tira Brigada via 105.1 Brigada News FM Manila, Mondays-Saturdays.