A Senate committee has ordered the arrest of Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC) founder Apollo Quiboloy, citing him in contempt after snubbing a subpoena to attend the hearing on cases of human trafficking and sex-related offenses.
“I cite in contempt Apollo Carreon Quiboloy for his refusal to be sworn or to testify before this investigation. This committee requests the Senate President to order his arrest so that he may be brought to testify,” Senate Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations, and Gender Equality chairperson Risa Hontiveros said.
Senator Robin Padilla, however, opposed the ruling of the panel.
“With all due respect, I object to the decision of the committee to cite Pastor Quiboloy in contempt,” Padilla said.
While Hontiveros noted Padilla’s objection, she noted that only a majority of the members of the committee may reverse or modify a contempt order within seven days.
“The majority of the members of the committee have seven days to formalize the objection to the ruling of the chair to hold Pastor Quiboloy in contempt,” she said.
“[But] my call for the other members of the committee is to uphold the ruling of contempt to pave the way for the Senate president to have Quiboloy arrested for the purpose of making him appear at the hearing,” Hontiveros said.
Apart from Hontiveros and Padilla, the other members of the Senate committee are Senators Pia Cayetano, Cynthia Villar, Nancy Binay, Imee Marcos, Raffy Tulfo, Christopher Go, Grace Poe, JV Ejercito, and Mark Villar.
Ex-officio members are Senate President Pro Tempore Loren Legarda, Majority Leader Joel Villanueva, and Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III.
Hontiveros disclosed a letter sent by Quiboloy’s lawyer, Melanio Balayan, on Feb. 28 addressed to her and Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri.
“With the criminal charges against him [Quiboloy] being tried virtually in public through the Senate committee and all available media, our client is now being humiliated, ridiculed, harassed and maligned at all media fronts with reckless abandon as if he was already a convict… We thus invoke our client’s right against further incrimination by recusing himself from the ongoing investigation,” Balayan said.
The Department of Justice on Monday said it would file sexual abuse charges against Quiboloy, who is wanted in the US for child sex trafficking.
The US Justice Department charged Quiboloy in 2021 with sex-trafficking of girls and women aged 12 to 25 to work as personal assistants, or “pastorals” who were allegedly required to have sex with him.
Justice Secretary Crispin Remulla said the victim in the latest case was 17 at the time the crimes were committed more than a decade ago, in 2011.
“We studied this case thoroughly and it was proven that Pastor Apollo Quiboloy and his colleagues have to answer for this,” Remulla said.
An opposition leader in the House of Representatives welcomed the DOJ’s decision.
“For too long, the cries of child abuse and trafficking victims have fallen on deaf ears, their anguish brushed aside, while Quiboloy evaded justice… We call for a thorough and impartial investigation to ensure that justice will indeed be served. The victims deserve nothing less than full reparation for the trauma they have endured,” House Assistant Minority Leader and Gabriela party-list Rep. Arlene Brosas said.
Remulla said the sexual abuse charge, punishable by up to 30 years in prison, would be filed at a lower court in Davao City where Quiboloy’s church is based.
He and five other defendants are to be charged separately at a Manila court for qualified human trafficking and other acts of child abuse.
Remulla said he would ask the Supreme Court to also move the sexual abuse trial to Manila.
Quiboloy – who is at least 73 years old, according to the US Federal Bureau of Investigation – was indicted in 2021 by US prosecutors who alleged, among other things, that girls and young women were coerced to have sex with him under threats of “eternal damnation.”
In a voice clip posted to the YouTube channel of his television network Sonshine Media last month, Quiboloy announced he was in hiding because he was afraid he would be subjected to “kidnapping or assassination” by the US and Philippine governments.
While the United States had not sought his extradition as of last week, Remulla raised the possibility it may do so later.
“If we file the case only after the extradition comes up, we might be accused of holding up the extradition,” he added. With AFP