How does candidacy substitution work?

The unexpected filing of the certificate of candidacy by Senator Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa for the position of president wasn’t taken too seriously by the general public, the media, and political analysts. This is because, Dela Rosa is expected to be substituted by another political bet that President Rodrigo Duterte and his faction in PDP-Laban have been pushing for, the president’s daughter himself, Sara Duterte who is the incumbent mayor of Davao City.

This is despite the fact that Mayor Duterte has filed for candidacy to be reelected as mayor of Davao. Such an expectation is not out of the blue, considering that the same tactic was employed by President Duterte during the 2016 Elections.

However, the public comes to ask themselves, is this actually possible? Do the election laws allow it?

There are two periods of substitutions with different conditions for substitution to be allowed.

The first one is when a candidate who initially filed a certificate of candidacy during the initial week of filing withdraws, dies, or gets disqualified. In this case, the political party from which this candidate is to be substituted comes, can field another candidate and file a candidacy during the deadline provided by Comelec, in this case, for the 2022 elections, the substitution deadline is on November 15th, 2021.

The second one is when during the period from the initial week of the filing of the certificate of candidacy to the actual election day, the original candidate either dies or gets disqualified, then, it is allowed by law that this candidate is substituted by someone else, provided that the substitute candidate has the same surname as the original one. This is because, during this period, ballots have already been printed with the name of the original candidate.

During the second period of substitution, if the original candidate withdraws, it is not allowed by law for someone else to be a substitute candidate. Going by these general conditions I’ve outlined above, it is perfectly within the law for Dela Rosa, or any candidate for that matter, to be substituted, given that they are able to follow the rules laid down by Comelec.

However, the issue of how the public will accept such a political move is an entirely different problem. The public sentiment so far is that such a move, if any party were to do it, without the actual death of the candidate is simply an act of deceit and dishonesty to the Philippine Electorate.