Dumaguete City (CNN Philippines, November 7) — Former Navy Col. Rey Lopez officially filed his certificate of candidacy (COC) on Tuesday for the special election in the 3rd district of Negros Oriental, making him the first and only bet so far to file his COC to replace expelled Rep. Arnie Teves.
Lopez, who was allied with the slain Gov. Roel Degamo, ran under the Nacionalista Party against Teves but lost during the 2022 elections. He was also a member of Philippine Military Academy Class 1992 and a former ROTC commandant of Silliman University.
In an interview during his filing at the Commission on Elections provincial office, Lopez said he will help bring back peace in the district where fear and terror reigned under the term of the former congressman.
Comelec, meanwhile, said it will stand by its new deadline for the filing of certificate of candidacy for the special elections to replace Teves in the House of Representatives. From the original schedule of Nov. 6-8, those interested to run are given more days after the schedule was extended until Nov. 11.
“Wala na pong extension yan. November 6 to 11 lamang ang filing ng certificate of candidacy, with or without anybody filing their COC,” Comelec Chairman George Garcia told reporters Tuesday.
[Translation: There will be no more extensions on the filing of candidacy. It will only be from Nov. 6 to 11 regardless of how many files.]
No COCs were filed on the first day of filing, but Garcia said they expect more COC filing on the last day.
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Over 301,000 registered voters are set to elect the new third district representative for Negros Oriental on December 9.
House Speaker Martin Romualdez has been the district’s caretaker since March 30 after Teves was named as the alleged mastermind of the killing of Degamo, designated a terrorist on Aug. 1 by the Anti-Terrorism Council (ATC), and in turn, expelled from the House of Representatives on Aug. 16.
CNN Philippines correspondent Paige Javier and stringer Roy Bustillo contributed to this report.
