MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Thursday said it will open the filing of certificates of candidacy (COCs) for the 2028 national and local elections in the third week of September next year, which is earlier than the previous schedules.
Comelec Chairperson George Erwin Garcia made this announcement during the hearing of the House committee on suffrage and electoral reforms. Garcia previously said that the poll body is eyeing earlier filing of COCs for the 2028 elections to avoid delays in resolving cases of candidates and party-listed nominees and preparations for the elections.
READ: Comelec reminds solons: COC filing for 2028 polls is less than 2 years away
The filing of COC for the previous elections was typically held during the first week of October.
“Ang filing ng candidacy, I’m going to tell this for the record, ay third week of September 2027. Yan yung filing ng candidacies natin sa national and local elections,” Garcia said.
(I’m going to tell this for the record, the filing of candidacy will be held in the third week of September 2027. That will be the filing of candidacies for the national and local elections.)
He noted that this is to start the printing of official ballots by December 2027 as there will be around 74 million registered voters. During the 2025 midterm elections, the poll body began printing ballots for over 68 million voters in January 2025.
“Therefore, pag nagfile ng September, maresolve namin ang cases, lalo yung nuisance and cancelation cases of accreditation, yung question sa disqualification ng nominees, dapat maresolve as early as November 2027,” Garcia added.
(Therefore, upon the filing in September [2027], we hope to resolve the nuisance, disqualification, and cancelation cases as early as November 2027.)
READ: Comelec to destroy 6 million printed ballots for 2025 polls
He said that with resolution of cases by November 2027, the poll body can have a clear list of names of candidates to be included in the official ballots.
Last year, the Comelec had to pause the printing of ballots in January 2025 in compliance with the temporary restraining orders issued by the Supreme Court in relation to cases of five candidates.
It had to destroy six million ballots, which amounted to P150 million, as the poll body was not anticipating the high court’s decision to include senatorial aspirant Subair Mustapha in the official ballots, who was initially declared as a nuisance candidate. /jpv
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