Comelec sees ‘large numbers’ of candidates with improperly prepared COCs

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has seen “large numbers” of candidates with improperly prepared certificates of candidacy (COC) at the Harbor Garden Tent in Pasay City where the filing for national positions is being held, its spokesperson James Jimenez said Monday.

“Certificates of [candidacy] are downloadable from the Comelec website and you have to print them out. Unfortunately, you have to print them back-to-back. And some of the candidates have been arriving here with the pages printed on separate sheets which makes it a problem for them,” Jimenez explained over ANC.

“They are having to repeat the forms, right? And it does slow them down a bit. Of course, we’ve not really turned anyone away and, you know, resulted in them not being able to file, except that it has made the process a little more cumbersome for them and it slowed down the process. Otherwise, everything has been smooth,” he added.

Jimenez shared that the poll body has recorded “large numbers” of the said issue at the Harbor Garden Tent.

“I think we’ve seen about two or three of these problems so far. But, of course, system-wide, those are large numbers if you’re seeing that many,” Jimenez noted.

“If you see two or three errors in every filing center, then yes, that is a large number. That’s why filers have to be careful – to avoid inconvenience,” Jimenez told INQUIRER.net in a text message.

As of October 3, eight aspirants have filed a COC for president, four for vice president, and 22 for senator.

RELATED STORIES

Familiar names, unfamiliar faces: A Marcos, an Aquino file COCs

First day of COC filing did not see a lot of aspirants — Comelec

COC filing starts: Candidates can’t bring along usual circus

je