CDO congressional candidate not disqualified

A Facebook post falsely claimed that the Commission on Elections has disqualified Cagayan De Oro City First District congressional candidate Lordan Suan over alleged vote-buying.

Facebook page CDO News Updates published on May 12, a post bearing the Comelec logo and alleging that the poll body had officially reelectionist Suan at the last minute:

The Commission on Elections (COMELEC) has officially disqualified Congressman Lordan Suan from running as a reelectionist Congressman in Cagayan de Oro's 1st District”

However, as of the end of election day, the Comelec had not issued a resolution or statement regarding Suan’s alleged disqualification. A review of Comelec’s verified Facebook page and official website as of the morning of May 13 yielded no such announcement.

Suan himself addressed the claim in a post, saying it was false and slanderous:

There are people spreading false information saying I was disqualified from the COMELEC because of vote buying. This news is untrue and just plain slander on my name.”

Suan is running against Rainier Joaquin “Kikang” Uy, who had a pending disqualification case last December over allegedly irregular voter registrations. Comelec later dismissed the case due to insufficient evidence, according to multiple news reports.

According to a news report, Suan denied initiating the disqualification case against Uy but confirmed he submitted a letter to Comelec expressing concern over the sudden increase in voter registrants in the district.

On May 11, Comelec published a response to a now-deleted post bearing the CNN Philippines logo falsely claiming that Uy had been disqualified for immoral and inappropriate public conduct after he allegedly made an inappropriate remark during a campaign. The post alleging Suan’s disqualification appeared hours later

At the time FactRakers archived CDO News Updates’ post, it had garnered 63 reactions, 46 comment,s and 102 shares. (BB)