And then there’s just one Marabe. Via an 11-page resolution promulgated March 8, 2022, the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) has declared Jason “Botoy” Marabe a “nuisance candidate.”

By definition, a nuisance candidate is someone who has filed a certificate of candidacy with the intention of:

1. putting the election process in mockery or disrepute
2. causing confusion among voters by the similarity of their name to other registered candidates
3. other circumstances or acts which clearly demonstrate that the candidate has no bona fide intention to run for the office for which the certificate of candidacy has been filed and is consequently preventing a faithful determination of the true will of the electorate.

Botoy Marabe filed his candidacy for the Malaybalay Vice Mayoralty seat. His uncle, Estelito “Litoy” Marabe, a duly elected Malaybalay councilor who is now serving as Vice Mayor (he took over the position after Malaybalay Mayor Florencio Flores, Jr. passed away. Then Vice Mayor Jay Warren Pabillaran is now the mayor) filed a petition to declare his nephew a nuisance candidate.

Among Litoy Marabe’s allegations against his nephew Botoy are: aside from having the same surname and causing confusion among voters, “Botoy” is also closely similar to “Litoy,”; Botoy will not be able to sustain the financial rigors of waging a city-wide campaign and Botoy has no organizational network.

In a post on his Facebook page, the older Marabe said that the elections should be treated as sacred and that no one should make a mockery out of the said exercise.

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