Election, in the Philippine setting, has been defined as the means by which the people choose their officials for a definite and fixed period and to whom, as their representatives, they entrust the exercise of the sovereign for the time being. Being in a democratic and republican type of government, election is necessary as it permits qualified citizens to choose the people who will exercise the country’s sovereign powers.

A core element of Philippine elections is the election campaign. During campaign, those who wish to hold public elective positions are able to broadcast and show to the public their platforms and plans that they plan to implement during their term of office. In view of the rise of social media, political campaign strategies have massively evolved – from the traditional printed paraphernalia to television advertisements, and now, to social media posts in Facebook, X, and Tiktok, among others. 

In using social media as a campaign platform, aspiring politicians do not simply post their plans; rather, they employ several gimmicks. For example, there are those who create catchy campaign jingle to boost following, those who dance to the tune of budots in to catch the attention of the young voters, and those who use it to smear the reputation of their opponents, or worse, the government itself. However, just like all freedoms, everything has a limitation. A political candidate cannot use his or her platform in violation of the settled election rules, lest risk the possibility of disqualification. Case in point? Harold Respicio.

Last 19 May 2025, Atty. Harold Respicio, a Vice-Mayoralty candidate of Reina Mercedes, Isabela, announced through his Facebook Page “Atty. Harold Respicio” that he just received the Petition for Disqualification filed by the Commission on Election (“COMELEC”) itself against him, with a prayer for the suspension of his proclamation. Prior to this, he has announced to the same Page that he received a Show Cause Order from the COMELEC in view of the allegations he made both in his Facebook and Tiktok Accounts, to wit: 

“Hindi audited yung source code na nasa ACMs! Wala ung hash code 0438 sa audit report!”

The Show Cause Order mentions Section 261(z)(11) of the Omnibus Election Code as its basis:

(11) Any person who, for the purpose of disrupting or obstructing the election process or causing confusion among the voters, propagates false and alarming reports or information or transmits or circulates false orders, directives or messages regarding any matter relating to the printing of official ballots, the postponement of the election, the transfer of polling place or the general conduct of the election. (Par. (oo), Id.)

One need not gander for so long to notice that the above provision did not define what constitutes “false and alarming reports or information”. Additionally, no national legislation has given the definitive meaning of fake news or disinformation, among others. The COMELEC however, on 17 September 2024, promulgated Resolution No. 11064, which aims to regulate the use, prohibition, and punishment of the misuse of social media for the 2025 National and Local Election. Article 2 thereof provided the definition of the following terms:

“Disinformation” refers to false information that is spread, or information that is based on fact, but removed from its original context and is maliciously manipulated, and used in partisan political activity or digital election campaign, with the intent to mislead, harm, or manipulate public opinion or voter behavior.

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“Fake news” as used herein, is the colloquial, collective, and common term used by ordinary Filipinos to refer to misinformation, malinformation, and disinformation deliberately presented as legitimate news and disseminated through digital platforms, traditional media, or other communication channels, with the intent to deceive, mislead, or manipulate public opinion or behavior.

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“Misinformation” refers to false or inaccurate information that is spread in a partisan political activity or digital election campaign, regardless of whether there is intent to mislead.

Article 5 of the same Resolution explicitly prohibits the creation and dissemination of fake news in furtherance of propagating disinformation and misinformation against the Philippine election system, the COMELEC, and the electoral processes in the Philippines during the election and campaign period.

A violation of the above Resolution empowers the COMELEC, through its Task Force Katotohanan, Katapatan, at Katarungan (KKK) sa Halalan, to motu proprio file an election offense complaint before the COMELEC Law Department against the erring candidate. This is mirrored in Section 264 of the Omnibus Election Code, which imposes the penalty of disqualification to hold public office and deprivation of the right of suffrage to the guilty candidate, on top of being imprisoned for not less than one year but not more than six years, without the possibility of probation.

It is thus unambiguous that the COMELEC motu proprio, or acting on its own motion, has the power to file a petition for disqualification case against an erring candidate for the violation of the above laws. The COMELEC will no longer wait for a Petition to be filed against an erring candidate and will instead take the lead in removing him or her from the election race. This cannot be viewed as an unnecessary flexing of the government muscle; rather, this is just the exercise of COMELEC’s constitutional duty to enforce and administer all laws and regulations relative to the conduct of election, and to prosecute cases of its violations.

In any case, the issuance of the above Resolution reveals that the COMELEC has increased and strengthened its efforts to combat fake news in order to effectively protect not only the sanctity of the ballot, but also of the whole electoral process. Nonetheless, it appears that the same is an insufficient deterrent to prevent the commission of the prohibited acts listed therein, as several politicians have been issued show cause orders for its violation, including Respicio.

In fact, the petition for disqualification is just the tip of the iceberg of cases filed by COMELEC against him. Last February 2025, the COMELEC filed a criminal complaint against him for cyberlibel. This June 2025, two arrest warrants was issued against Respicio by a Manila Court, to which the former voluntarily surrendered and paid the required bail. The COMELEC likewise filed a Complaint for Disbarment against Respicio in view of his acts. Lastly, while Respicio won in the local position he was vying, his proclamation was first suspended by COMELEC before its eventual lifting.

At this point, we still do not know the defenses of Respicio against all the allegations being thrown at him by COMELEC. However, it is of no question that he is going to hurdle a mountain just to prove that all of his statements have factual foundation and legal basis. From here, what we can only do is wait and watch.