In May 2022, Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada won a senate seat while on trial for corruption. He took up the post and was acquitted in January.
Another was rights campaigner Leila de Lima, who spent the majority of her six-year senate term in prison after being detained in 2017 on drug charges. She was cleared this year.
Candidates are only disqualified from standing in senate elections if they have exhausted all appeals after being convicted of offences involving “moral turpitude”, according to the election code which does not list specific crimes.
Quiboloy was charged by the United States in 2021 with sex trafficking of girls and women to work as personal assistants, who were allegedly required to have sex with him during what they said was their “night duty”.
He is also sought by US authorities for bulk cash smuggling and a scheme that brought church members to the US through fraudulently obtained visas.
They were then forced to solicit donations for a bogus charity, raising funds that were instead used to finance church operations and the lavish lifestyles of its leaders, according to the FBI.
Twelve of the 24 senate seats are up for grabs in next year’s midterm polls, along with more than 18,000 congressional and local government executive posts.
Source: CNA
