The Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday issued temporary restraining orders preventing the disqualification of Francis Leo Marcos and former Albay governor Noel Rosal in the upcoming May 12 national and local elections.
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) earlier revoked the certificate of candidacy of Marcos, who is running for senator, and Rosal who is running for Albay governor.
In November 2024, the Comelec ruled that Marcos had “no genuine intent to run for office despite being allowed to run in the 2022 elections, where he received 4,477,024 votes.”
Rosal’s cancellation stemmed from the prayer for automatic administrative cancellation following his dismissal from service by the Ombudsman, which carries the penalty of perpetual disqualification from holding public office.
The SC also ordered the Comelec to comment on the two petitions within a non-extendible period of five days.
The Comelec meanwhile will resume the printing of 73 million ballots today after an 8-day delay due to the SC issuance of temporary restraining orders (TROs) to include nine political aspirants –previously declared as nuisance candidates–in the ballots for the 2025 midterm elections.
Poll chairman George Garcia also deputized the National Printing Office aimed to fast-track the reprinting of ballots with the goal of printing at least 1.5 million ballots daily.
At least six million printed ballots, costing more than P150 million were discarded in compliance with the TROs issued by the SC on the various cases of nine election aspirants running for national and local positions.
The poll chief is also hoping that the latest TRO issued by the High Court on Monday in favor of petitioner Jonas C. Cortes, a mayoral aspirant in Mandaue City, Cebu would be the last.
“We are hoping that the printing process will proceed as soon as possible. If there will be new developments, we will see what we can do,” Garcia said.
On Tuesday, the poll body conducted a “trusted build” to allow the addition of new candidates to the ballots in the automated election management system.
This trusted build — which refers to the process of assembling the overall program that will govern the entire automated election management system — is necessary for Comelec to comply with the Supreme Court (SC) decision, which ordered the poll body to add the name of an erstwhile nuisance candidate and other disqualified local aspirants to the midterm poll ballots.
