One of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's key spiritual advisers Pastor Apollo Quiboloy denied reports Monday that he is a voter with double registration.
The leader of the six-million followers of Kingdom of Jesus Christ The Name Above Every Name maintained that he is a registered voter in Barangay (village) Tamayong, Calinaw, Davao City since 1997 and has been voting there ever since.
In 2003, Quiboloy—who failed to vote in two previous elections—applied for validation of his voter registration in Barangay Buhangin, Davao City, which would enable him to vote again, where his church is located.
Quiboloy said in his statement that “under Comelec rules, a voter may apply for validation anywhere and not necessarily in the precinct where he or she is registered.”
In this light, Quiboloy stressed that his name “should have not come up in the list of voters with double registrations.”
"Pastor Quiboloy has never, at anytime, registered in Buhangin, Davao city nor has he voted there. Our documents show that Pastor Quiboloy has been voting only in Tamayong, Davao City," the statement read.
In a separate statement, Comelec Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal said the Comelec’s regional director in Davao researched their records and clarified that Quiboloy is not a double registrant.
The “mix-up” might have been a result of Quiboloy being a registered voter in Buhangin but having validation records in Tamayong, said the poll official.
Lawyer Howard Calleja of the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV), who said that Quiboloy was a double-registrant along with other 40,000 “zombie” voters, urged Comelec to be serious in cleansing the voters’ list.
Larrazabal explained the voter records with PPCRV could be not updated, since the purging of the voters’ list is a continuous process.
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