The Supreme Court (SC) has issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) that prevents the Commission on Elections (Comelec) from disqualifying former Caloocan congressman Edgar Erice from running for reelection as the city’s 2nd district representative in this year’s mid-term elections.

The TRO was issued by the SC during its regular en banc session on Tuesday, the same day it also acted on similar petitions filed by several candidates who were earlier disqualified by the Comelec as candidates in the coming elections.

In the case of Erice, the SC also directed the Comelec to comment on his petition within 10 days from receipt of the TRO notice.

The Comelec made final Erice’s disqualification in a resolution issued last 3 January, affirming the Comelec Second Division’s ruling issued on 27 December 2024.

The former solon was disqualified for disseminating “false and alarming” information, which the poll body deemed a violation of Section 261 of the Omnibus Election Code.

The poll body was referring to Erice’s claims about corruption and irregularities involving the Comelec’s P18-billion contract with Korean-based firm Miru Systems for the automated election system.

It held that Erice’s “act of propagating false information across multiple platforms demonstrates his deliberate intent to disrupt elections and was not a legitimate criticism.”

The exclusion of Erice’s name from the list of approved candidates was revealed by Comelec chairman George Erwin Garcia on 6 January 2025, when printing of election ballots started.

SC spokesperson Camille Sue Mae Ting said the TRO would mean that the names of disqualified election candidates should be reinstated in the ballots.

“It’s up to Comelec how they will implement this but they will just have to follow the order of the Supreme Court,” Ting said.

Other election candidates who managed to secure a TRO against their disqualification by the Comelec were Subair Guinthum Mustapha, Charles Savellano, Chito Bulatao Balintay and Florendo de Ramos Ritualo Jr.

Mustapha filed a petition with a prayer for TRO challenging the Comelec’s resolution declaring him a nuisance candidate and cancelling his certificate of candidacy for senator in the 2025 elections. The SC issued a TRO prohibiting the poll body from declaring Mustapha a nuisance candidate.