Bro. Eddie stays in race — Comelec

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) dismissed yesterday for lack of merit a petition to disqualify Christian evangelist Bro. Eddie Villanueva from running for president.

Dismissing the petition’s logic as "strained," the poll body said in its eight-page decision that the petitioner failed to prove that Villanueva’s candidacy violated the constitutional principle of separation of Church and State.

The Comelec promulgated the ruling as various groups flocked to the poll body’s Intramuros office to support their leaders who attended the Comelec’s en banc hearing on their disqualification to run for office on May 10 because they were "nuisance candidates."

The ruling reversed an earlier decision of Comelec lawyers to exclude Villanueva from the list of official candidates purportedly because he did not have a political party to support his candidacy.

"This means it is all go for the candidacy of Bro. Eddie Villanueva," said Villanueva’s lawyer Eric Paul Fetalino but they expect the petitioner, Advocates and Adherents of Social Justice for School Teachers and Allied Workers (AASJSAW) headed by lawyer Samson Alcantara, to appeal the decision.

In its petition, AASJSAW held that Villanueva should be disqualified because the Christian evangelist may use his presidential powers to promote Christianity at the expense of other religions if he wins.

But the Comelec’s second division said that even assuming that the petitioner’s fears were true, the poll body could not disqualify Villanueva because doing so would violate the Bill of Rights and that religious affiliation was not a disqualification to run for president.

The poll body’s second division consists of Commissioners Florentino Tuason Jr., Ralph Lantion and Mehol Sadain.

"Even conceding that there should be real concern for the danger of religion intruding into the affairs of republican and democratic state, the Commission cannot favorably act on petitioner’s alleged ground for disqualification for the simple reason that it is not one of the disqualifications set by the Constitution," the ruling read.

The Comelec also ruled that disqualifying Villanueva on the grounds cited by the petitioner would violate the constitutional provision that "no religious test shall be required for the exercise of civil or political rights."

Fetalino said Villanueva was not awaiting the Comelec’s favorable ruling on the Christian evangelist’s petition to have his Bangon Pilipinas Movement accredited as a political party.

Meanwhile, various groups flocked to the poll body’s office to support their leaders who attended the Comelec’s en banc hearing on the motions for reconsideration of "nuisance candidates."

The groups waited around the Comelec building and engaged in various activities, such as praying the rosary, delivering speeches and waving American flags to support their respective candidates.

Among the disqualified nuisance candidates was lawyer Elly Pamatong, who wants to run for president and claimed that his "paramilitary troops in 13 regions of the country are more powerful than any political party."

Also among the nuisance candidates for vice president was Greg Salas Taruc, who claimed he worked with Comelec Chairman Benjamin Abalos in organizing a group of poor folk.

"I was with you when we were organizing the poor," Taruc told Abalos in open court and the chairman acknowledged the claim with weak and embarrassed nods.