Nuisance bets

THIS has been a ritual of sorts in every election, all kinds of wannabes filing their certificates of candidacy (COC)— even those with nary a chance of winning. They are called nuisance candidates. But there is one thing they provide for those monitoring the developments in Commission on Election (Comelec) offices nationwide. They give this serious undertaking its light and colorful moments.

This is easily observable in elections for national posts, notably for president, vice president and senator, apparently because the political exercise attracts a wider audience being national in scope. Comelec officials have time and again attempted to weed out of the elections these so-called “nuisance candidates,” especially because their names lengthen the already long list of candidates printed in the ballots.

Comelec Commissioner Rowena Guanzon noted this during the first day of the filing of the COCs the other day. “Last time around, 140 filed (for senator) but only 50 were qualified as the rest were disqualified. Most often because they were nuisance. We are appealing to them that if they don’t have bonafide intention to really run...don’t file the COC,” she said.

Then she added:

“Don’t make fun of the process or make it as a souvenir for your FB

(Facebook) because we have lots of work to do here. Democracy should not be treated as a joke.”

But what can the Comelec do when our electoral process allows everybody who wants to run for an elective post to do so? After all, that’s what democracy is all about. As one former congressman put it, everybody is entitled to his or her own entertainment. The most that the Comelec can do is to purge the list of the so-called nuisance bets— but only after these wannabes make a spectacle of themselves during the filing of the COCs.

The word for that is “ministerial.” Comelec offices accept whatever wannabes file and then subject all of the COCs to a process that could lead to the filers being allowed to run or being disqualified.

Of the 27 who filed their COCs on the first day of the filing of the COCs for senator, for example, only Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III’s candidacy can be considered genuine. There were known personalities, like folk singer Freddie Aguilar and former party-list congressman Neri Colmenares but the rest are what we Cebuanos would call “wa-il” (“wa ilhi” or unknown).

Candidates propped up by political parties and with bigger chances of winning usually file their COCs late, or near the deadline. There are a number of reasons for that, including the political parties taking time finalizing their slates. They also know that interest is high in the last day of the filing of the COCs.

The same is true at the local level although the number of nuisance candidates is fewer there and they are not as colorful in their filing of their COCs. The “non-nuisance” candidates, though, could be creative in attracting attention to their endeavor but the usual practice is to attend a mass before trooping to the Comelec offices.

We still have three days next week for this exercise. Let us see how the ritual will play out this year.