Bogus disqualification claims target Philippine political party ahead of vote
"The COMELEC has disqualified the BAYAN MUNA Party-list from participating in the 2025 midterm elections," reads a Facebook post shared May 10.
It featured screenshots of Comelec's supposed ruling on a disqualification case filed by a petitioner named Angela O. Aguilar against Bayan Muna which is seeking a seat in Congress in the upcoming mid-term vote (archived link).
The resolution -- apparently docketed "SPA No. 24-059" -- says the party-list group was disqualified for having links to a communist rebel group (archived link).
Another Facebook post purports to show a Comelec press announcement quoting its spokesman John Rex Laudiangco as saying: "Votes cast for the BAYAN MUNA PARTYLIST will be considered null and void."
Screenshots claiming to show news reports announcing Bayan Muna's disqualification also surfaced but were dismissed by The Philippine Star, Inquirer,ABS-CBN News and Rappler (archived here, here, here and here).
"The Commission En Banc has not released a resolution disqualifying the Bayan Muna Party-list during this elections," Comelec said in a post on its official Facebook page on May 10 (archived link).
"They are still officially included in the list of candidates for party-list groups for the election on Monday (May 12, 2025)."
The circulating resolution and press announcement are bogus.
A search through Comelec's notices on special action cases found "SPA No. 24-059" refers to an unrelated petition involving Jose Bunilla who was declared a "nuisance candidate" by the election body (archived link).
A petitioner named Angela O. Aguilar, who claimed to be a secretary-general of a nongovernment organisation for underprivileged women, sought to disqualify Bayan Muna in 2019 (archived link).
But her petition was dismissed in 2020, according to several Philippine news reports (archived here, here, here).
Carlos Zarate of Bayan Muna said in a post on the group's Facebook page on May 10: "There is no reason to disqualify the group and the Comelec knows this. We are a legitimate party-list group joining in the exercise of the elections (archived link)."
AFP has debunked similar false disqualification claims targeting the party during the 2022 and 2019 elections.
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