MANILA, 17 March 2004 — Eddie Gil, the obscure candidate who promised to make every Filipino a millionaire if elected president, was disqualified from the May 10 election yesterday.

The Commission on Election declared Gil a “nuisance candidate,” saying it has finally found that Gil lacks the financial capability and political machinery to mount a nationwide campaign.

In a resolution, the poll body said it was an “undeniable fact that his (Gil’s) certificate of candidacy has been filed to put the election process in mockery or disrepute.”

“All told, as logic will tell us, it is inevitable to conclude that the respondent is not a stranger to the games of charlatans and impostors,” said the resolution issued by the Comelec’s second division chaired by Commissioner Mel Sadain.

An angry Gil tore a copy of the resolution in front of the Comelec office in Manila as he accused the poll body of bowing to pressures from his rivals.

“Our opponents did this to us because they are afraid of our challenge ... to pay the debts of the Philippines,” he told DZBB radio. “But it doesn’t matter. God is watching us.”

“I have the capacity to campaign anywhere, even throughout the world, not only in the Philippines,” he told a motley group of followers and reporters.

He also warned that if his supposed more than 30 million followers get angry and there will be trouble, he should not be blamed.

Presidential candidate Eddie Villanueva, leader of the Jesus is Lord charismatic movement, sought Gil’s disqualification, alleging that Gil’s candidacy would lead to unnecessary spoilage of votes for him.

Villanueva shrugged off Gil’s warning that trouble would result from his disqualification. “Filipinos are not stupid people. They will not take to the streets unless there is a cause,” Villanueva said in an interview in Davao City, where his party held two rallies.

He called on the Comelec to immediately disseminate information on Gil’s disqualification to Overseas Filipino Voters who had already started casting their ballots.

Villanueva expressed relief that the supposed threat of stray votes posed by Gil’s candidacy was finally removed: “I thank God and the Comelec for at last upholding justice, truth, and righteousness even if it is a little delayed. Now we can go all-out in our campaign.”

Guillermo Luz, secretary-general of the National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel), told reporters that it was “a good decision on the part of the Comelec.”

Luz added: “Gil should never have been qualified in the first place.”

In February, Gil was briefly detained after issuing several worthless checks for his hotel bill while campaigning, police said. He was finally forced to pay cash.

Gil was previously disqualified as a nuisance candidate while running for the Senate in 2001. He was later allowed to contest the poll but lost, receiving the lowest number of votes of all 37 senatorial candidates.

Gil’s removal leaves incumbent Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, opposition front-runner Fernando Poe Jr., Sen. Panfilo Lacson, former Education Secretary Raul Roco and Villanueva in the presidential race. Recent voter surveys put Arroyo and Poe nearly even. (Additional input from agencies)