Kingdom of Jesus Christ Pastor Apollo Quiboloy. - Photo: Senate Public Relations and Information Bureau
MANILA: The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has denied a petition to disqualify jailed televangelist Apollo Quiboloy from the 2025 senatorial race and have him declared a “nuisance” candidate.
In a resolution dated Dec 18, the Comelec’s First Division said the petitioner, lawyer Sonny Matula, also a senatorial candidate of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Party (WPP), failed to comply with Section 1(b) of Comelec Resolution No. 11046, which states that a petition to declare a candidate as nuisance cannot be combined with other grounds for a separate remedy.
The Comelec has different procedures for petitions for disqualification, denial of due course or cancellation of a certificate of candidacy for material misrepresentation, and declaration of a candidate as nuisance.
The division said that even if it were to apply the rules on liberality and decide based on the merits of the petition, the grounds relied upon by Matula for Quiboloy’s disqualification were “incorrect and without factual basis.”
‘Devoid of merit’
“Moreover, there is a dearth of evidence presented by the petitioner that would convince us that respondent should be declared as a nuisance candidate,” read the resolution signed by the division’s members, Presiding Commissioner Socorro Inting and Commissioners Aimee Ferolino and Ernesto Ferdinand Maceda Jr.
The commissioners also said Matula’s arguments for Quiboloy’s disqualification in view of the latter’s criminal cases for sexual abuse and human trafficking were “devoid of merit” since the cases were still pending and yet to be decided with finality.
In a statement, the WPP said it was unperturbed by the Comelec ruling since, “[e]ven before the promulgation of the decision, we had already achieved our first and primary objective since Quiboloy voluntarily disassociated himself from the WPP, shortly after realising that the WPP is no pushover,” the WPP said. - Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN
