Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman George Erwin Garcia announced on Saturday, Aug. 31, that--for the first time ever--they would publish a copy of an aspiring candidate's Certificate of Candidacy (COC) online in relation to the May 2025 polls.

"At gusto ko pong iannounce sa lahat ng kandidato...Lahat po ng COCs ng lahat ng kandidato i-pupublish po namin, first time (I want to announce this to all candidates... For the first time, all COCs of candidates will be published)," Garcia said in an  interview on DZRH radio.

Garcia says this is their response to the issues involving the dismissed Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo. 

The poll body's law department is set to file a case of misrepresentation against Guo after its fact-finding team has found enough basis to file a motu propio election offense case against the local official.

This was for allegedly committing material misrepresentation in her COC during the May 2022 national and local elections.

"Sa amin pong palagay hindi magviviolate ng data privacy because nirerequire ng Section 74 ng Omnibus Election Code yung mga requirements na yan: anong edad mo, anong nickname mo, sinong nag-endorse sa'yong political party (For us this does not violate their data privacy because these are being required under Section 74 of the Omnibus Election Code: their age, their nickname, what political party endorsed them)," Garcia explained.

Garcia says that there is a portion in the COC form that states that the candidate is allowing Comelec to publish their COCs.

"Tatanggalin lang po namin yung ibang personal information i-reredact natin para 'di magviolate like for example wala naman talaga sa batas ang email address pero may nakalagay na po sa COC ngayon (We will just remove or redact other personal information so we won't violate anything such as the email address since it's not really under the law but it's in the COC now)," he explained.

Comelec has also released the guidelines for filing COCs in relation to the May 2025 polls under Resolution 11045, promulgated on Aug. 28, 2024.

Meanwhile, Garcia also announced that they will also publish online a copy of candidates' Statements of Contributions and Expenditures (SOCE).

"Ibig sabihin po, para malaman sinong nagbigay, paano ginastos, may natira ba, nagbayad ba ng tax. Para naman alam naman po ng mga kababayan po natin (This means that people would know who donated to them, how they spent, how much was left, and if they paid their taxes. So that the people would know)," he added.

Those proven to have failed to file their SOCEs may face perpetual disqualification. 

According to Garcia, the filing of SOCE is imperative so the poll body would know where the funds used by the candidates came from and where it was used.