MANILA, Philippines – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) junked the petition that sought to disqualify arrested doomsday preacher Apollo Quiboloy from running for the 2025 senatorial elections. 

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In its resolution dated December 18, Comelec’s 1st Division said the petitioners, labor leader Sonny Matula and the Workers’ and Peasants’ Party (WPP), failed to follow the poll body’s procedural rules as their petition to declare Quiboloy a nuisance candidate was combined “with a myriad of other grounds and remedies.” 

It also added that if the petition were to be considered based on merits, “the grounds relied upon… for the disqualification of [Quiboloy] and the cancellation of his [certificate of candidacy] are incorrect and without factual and legal basis.” 

“There is a dearth of evidence presented by Petitioner that could convince us that respondent should be declared a nuisance candidate,” the resolution also read. The resolution was signed by Comelec commissioners Socorro Inting, Aimee Ferolino, and Ernesto Ferdinand Maceda Jr.  

The doomsday preacher and close ally of former president Rodrigo Duterte was arrested in September 2024 after months of evasion and violent stand-off between his supporters and authorities. He is currently facing charges of sexual abuse of a minor, child abuse, and qualified trafficking in two separate courts in the Philippines, on top of being on on the United States’ Federal Bureau of Investigation’s most-wanted list since early 2022 for sex trafficking of children and promotional money laundering. 

But Comelec said the arguments that Quiboloy should be disqualified because of his legal challenges “are devoid of merit,” since it is required that there is a final decision for a candidate to be barred from running. 

“Such final decision is lacking in this case as the criminal cases filed against [Quiboloy] are still pending and awaiting decision,” Comelec said in its resolution.

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Quiboloy filed his COC through a representative in October, but his certificate of nomination and acceptance (CONA) was put under scrutiny after it was alleged that he is not an official candidate of the WPP. 

Comelec, however, said that this is not material misrepresentation and this issue “merely converts [Quiboloy]’s status to that of an independent candidate. The petitioner also “failed to prove that [Quiboloy] had intended to deceive the electorate.”

Material misrepresentation, the poll body said, is committed by a candidate “relative to the required qualifications of the public office that he or she is running for.” 

Section 3 Article VI of the 1987 Constitution states that a Philippine senator should be a natural-born citizen, at least 35 years old, able to read and write, a registered voter, and a resident of the country for at least two years. 

“Clearly, membership or nomination by political party is not among the qualifications for the position of Senator, thus the submission of a CONA that was signed by an unauthorized individual is not equivalent to a material misrepresentation that will affect the respondent’s eligibility,” Comelec said. – Rappler.com