After months of dodging the Senate’s invitations, alleged sex offender Pastor Apollo Quiboloy and his Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC) inner circle finally faced the Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations, and Gender Equality on Wednesday.
Quiboloy’s attendance was made possible by Pasig Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 159 acting Presiding Judge Rainelda Estacio-Montesa, who ordered the Pasig City Jail warden and the chief of the PNP Custodial Center to ensure his secure transfer to the Senate premises on time for the hearing.
The magistrate acted on the formal request of panel chair Senator Risa Hontiveros.
Hontiveros said she vigorously pursued the inquiry due to disturbing accounts of abuses involving young girls, lured to the KOJC by religious devotion.
“Are our rape laws sufficient to navigate the gray area of consent, sexual agency and religious freedom? Are our labor laws sufficient to address the situation of religious volunteers who are forced to work and are denied benefits such as SSS, Philhealth and Pag-ibig?” the lady senator said during the session.
At the hearing, two alleged victims, Teresita Valdehueza and Arlene Stone testified and told the panel how the pastor and select members of the Davao-based church sexually abused them over a number of years.
Valdehueza said she was 17-years-old when became a member of the KOJC in 1980.
She recounted how she eventually left her family and dedicated her life to the ministry, within which she grew in position and stature.
However, Valdehueza said her eyes were opened to the true nature of their leader when he started to sexually abuse her sometime in 1993.
Stone, who has since migrated to the United States, also narrated to the panel her ordeal in the hands of the man they came to know as the “appointed son of god” via teleconferencing.
One former KOJC member who testified during Wednesday’s hearing recounted another sort of physical abuse imposed on church members who managed to displease Quiboloy and his lieutenants – dry fasting that lasted from 10 to 39 days.
Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel also raised concern about such punishments and their legal implications.
“Were there members who suffered from bad consequences as a result of dry fasting as a form of punishment? If there were, then we should encourage them to complain because this might be a violation of the Revised Penal Code,” Pimentel, a lawyer, said.
Meanwhile, a Philippine National Police (PNP) official told the panel they have discovered that Quiboloy was trying to emulate the biblical story of King Solomon who had 700 wives and 300 concubines.
Col. Hansel Marantan, who heads the Davao City Police Office, told lawmakers that the pastor is believed to “have victimized 200 women already, currently, PNP identified 68 female personalities, of different ages.”
Quiboloy also relied on his personal death squad, dubbed, the “Angels of Death,” to keep rape victims from speaking up.
“Victimization continued repeatedly through the years and by generation,” Marantan further told Senators.
Quiboloy invoked his right to self-incrimination throughout the hearing.
But in a chance interview with reporters, he denied all the allegations hurled against him and described the Senate hearing as unfair.
“There are no facts. This Committee is not the one to decide whether I am guilty or not. It should be the court of law. This is not a fair committee,” Quiboloy said in Filipino.
There is no truth in what they said. If they have criminal charges against me, they are free to file a case and I will face it and answer it in the proper forum, in the court of our land, like we what are facing now,” he further said, apparently referencing US prosecutors’ reported desire to seek his extradition.
However, Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo, who also attended the hearing, said his office has yet to receive a formal request from the US government for Quiboloy’s extradition over sex trafficking and other charges.
“We wish to report that [we have] not received a formal extradition request,” the DFA chief told the panel.
Manalo explained that in the event that that they receive a formal extradition request, it would still be studied before they refer it to the Department of Justice for “relevant action.”
“We will study it and see if it is consistent with the agreed procedure pertaining to extradition… And then after we’re satisfied with the request, we will of course refer it to DOJ,” he added.
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