Manual recount was formally requested by detained pastor and senatorial candidate Apollo Quiboloy after he ranked 31st in the Commission on Elections’ (Comelec) latest official tally with 5,577,812 votes.
According to his legal counsel, Atty. Israelito Torreon, the request was prompted by alleged irregularities in the voting process, including discrepancies in election returns, mismatched firmware versions of voting machines, and instances of overvoting.
Torreon clarified that the move is not meant to discredit the poll body but is a legal step to safeguard the integrity of the electoral process and uphold the true will of the people.
Quiboloy, the leader of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ religious group, remains in detention while facing multiple criminal charges in both the Philippines and the United States, including child and sexual abuse and human trafficking.
The Comelec has yet to release an official response to the recount request, which may undergo legal scrutiny in the coming days as part of post-election proceedings.