MANILA – The name of the presidential aspirant disqualified by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) for being a “nuisance candidate†will still appear in the official ballots to be used in the May 10 elections, a Comelec official said.
Comelec Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal said this is so despite the appeal of the Liberal Party (LP) that the name of Vetellano Acosta be removed from the official ballots because of his disqualification.
The Comelec has cancelled the certificate of candidacy of Acosta, the standard bearer of the once mighty “Kilusang Bagong Lipunan†(KBL or New Society Movement) founded by the late Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
With Acosta’s disqualification, the LP immediately asked the Comelec to remove his name from the official ballots and to place at the top of the list of the remaining nine presidential aspirants the name of Senator Benigno “Noynoy†Aquino 3rd.
Aquino, the only son of the late global democracy icon president Corazon Aquino, is LP’s official bet and is a heavy favorite to become the next president based on the latest public opinion polls.
The LP, through its campaign manager Butch Abad, explained the official ballots contain the list of presidential candidates, which is arranged in alphabetical order and with Acosta’s disqualification Aquino’s name would be the first on the list.
Abad, a former congressman and member of the Aquino Cabinet, pointed out that this is important for “name recall,†especially for the undecided voters who would go to the polling precincts and cast their ballots to elect the president and other elective officials in the country’s first-ever attempt to computerize the elections on May 10.
Abad said the Comelec should have disqualified Acosta as a nuisance candidate before the ballots were printed as he stressed:
“Acosta’s running mate (former broadcaster Jay Sonza) and the only son and namesake of the KBL founder Congressman Ferdinand Marcos Junior has admitted he doesn’t even know what Acosta looks like.â€
However, Larrazabal said doing so would be “very costly†to the Comelec which already printed nine million of the 50.7 million official ballots to be used in the polls.
Larrazabal assured the Comelec would stop the printing of the remaining ballots in order to remove the name of Acosta.
He also said the Comelec would just consider the votes for Acosta, who describes himself as an international financial consultant as “stray†and would not be counted in the official tabulation.
Aside from his disqualification, the Comelec also said it might also file a criminal case of falsification of a public document against Acosta for allegedly making false entries in his certificate of candidacy.
The Comelec disclosed Acosta said he was a registered voter in the Santa Ana district of Manila but this turned out to be false.
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