Zubiri to sign subpoena vs Quiboloy

Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri on Friday vowed to sign the request for a subpoena against Kingdom of Jesus Christ founder Apollo Quiboloy.

In a Viber message, Zubiri said the recent “attacks” against the Senate were the reason behind the delayed approval of Senator Risa Hontiveros’ request for a subpoena against Quiboloy.

“The last few weeks have been marred with attacks against the Senate and our democratic institutions due to the fake People’s Initiative. The noise has only just settled down during these last few days,” he said.

“In the middle of our efforts to protect the institution, a lot of our administrative work had piled up in my office, including paper work that need my signature,” he added.

Zubiri said the subpoena for Quiboloy had “been prepared and is now ready for my signature.”

“I am just in the Visayas at the moment for several engagements, but I will sign all these documents upon my return,” the Senate chief said.

On Thursday, Hontiveros revealed that her request for a subpoena for Quiboloy, who is at the center of alleged sexual and physical abuses at the KOJC, had yet to be approved.

The Senate Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations and Gender Equality, which Hontiveros chairs, kicked off its probe last month into the alleged crimes committed by the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, under the leadership of its founder, Quiboloy.

In a letter to Zubiri, Hontiveros had requested a subpoena for Quiboloy for the committee’s next hearing.

“For the information of the Senate President, Mr. Quiboloy has failed to honor the invitation of the Committee in its hearing on 23 January 2024, and the Senate has, under your leadership and the leadership of past Senate Presidents, consistently issued subpoenas against resource persons who fail, without justifiable reason, to attend its inquiries,” Hontiveros said in the letter.

“To further update you, in the days and weeks after the hearing, my office is in receipt of credible evidence of threats on the lives of our first two witnesses and potential witnesses. I believe these efforts constitute obstruction of a legitimate Senate inquiry, and lend urgency to the call to subpoena Mr. Quiboloy,” she added.

According to Hontiveros, the committee had issued at least two invitations to Quiboloy to shed light on the alleged sexual and physical abuses that were linked to him and the KOJC, which he founded in 1985.

Quiboloy, however, did not respond. He instead sent a letter addressed to Zubiri. During the hearing last month, he was represented by his counsel, Melanio Balayan.

Quiboloy, who served as the spiritual adviser of former president Rodrigo Duterte, is one of the most wanted suspected sex traffickers by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation.

In 2021, a Federal Grand Jury in California indicted the religious leader and other officials of KOJC over the sex trafficking of “pastorals” — young women in the KOJC selected to work as personal assistants to Quiboloy.