Supreme Court Rules Financial Constraints Not Grounds for Nuisance Candidate Label

In a significant ruling released on Monday, the Supreme Court of the Philippines declared that a candidate’s financial situation should not be used to label them as a nuisance candidate. The decision came in response to a petition filed by Juan Juan Olila Ollesca, who was previously deemed a nuisance candidate by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) during his presidential run in the 2022 elections. The Supreme Court emphasized that the Comelec’s conflation of financial capacity with a genuine intent to run for office is unconstitutional. Associate Justice Marvic Leonen, who authored the ruling, stated that requiring financial capacity to campaign effectively is a prohibited property qualification under the Philippine Constitution. The court further clarified that factors such as lack of political party nomination, limited public recognition, or insufficient campaign funds do not definitively indicate a lack of intent to run for office. The ruling criticized the Comelec for relying on broad claims about Ollesca’s financial inability to conduct a viable campaign. The Supreme Court defined a nuisance candidate as someone who files a candidacy merely to cause confusion or to mock the electoral process, clearly lacking any genuine intention to hold office.