House panel OKs bill imposing P100K fine on nuisance candidates

The House committee on suffrage and electoral reforms on Tuesday approved the panel report on the proposed measure seeking to impose P100,000 fine on a nuisance candidate.

House Bill 91, introduced by Samar Representative Edgar Mary Sarmiento, is An Act Amending Section 69 of Batas Pambansa Bilang 881, also known as the Omnibus Election Code, imposing a fine upon a nuisance candidate and/or persons in conspiracy with such candidate for the malicious filing of a certificate of candidacy.

In the committee meeting, Sarmiento stressed that filing candidacy during election season should not be made as a joke.

"The whole intention is to make sure that the filing of candidacy will be considered in seriousness. It's not something that will be made as a joke... that's the intention really of this bill," Sarmiento said.

The bill stated that there is a reasonable need to employ more measures to deter the practice of indiscriminately filing nuisance certificates of candidacy just to mock the election or to attempt to shave votes off certain individuals.

Sarmiento also said the Commission on Elections should be guided well, with an instrument such as a law, in determining if the person is a nuisance candidate or not.

Under the proposed measure, the Commission shall summon the nuisance candidate, the person/s alleged to have caused the filing of the certificate of candidacy in question, and the members of the candidate's party in a hearing specifically called to determine the existence of malice and bad faith in the filing of the certificate of candidacy in question.

Upon findings of substantial malice and bad faith, the bill said Comelec shall impose a fine of not less than P100,000 on a nuisance candidate.—AOL, GMA News