Quiboloy’s presence at hearing keenly awaited

Nearly half a year after the last hearing, the Senate Committee on Women, Children, Family, and Gender Equality’s is set to resume its investigation into the alleged crimes of religious leader Apollo Quiboloy.

Senate Deputy Minority Leader Risa Hontiveros, the panel’s chair, on Thursday announced the resumption of the hearings on Wednesday, 23 October.

She said the committee will ask the court to allow Quiboloy to be physically present at the Senate to answer the accusations against him.

“The committee will write to the court again to request permission for him to attend the hearings, similar to what was done with other resource persons in the custody of the court or law enforcement,” Hontiveros told reporters in a press briefing.

Quiboloy is currently detained at Camp Crame in Quezon City following his arrest in September after months in hiding.

He was ordered arrested by the Davao Regional Trial Court along with five others identified as Jackielyn Roy, Cresente Canada, Paulene Canada, Ingrid Canada, and Sylvia Cemañes on sexual abuse and trafficking charges.

Hontiveros said the committee will present a new batch of witnesses at the next hearing.

“Some of the victim survivors who have already testified will be present, and we also have new victim survivors who are seeking even a small measure of justice,” she said.

Quiboloy, who served as the spiritual adviser of former president Rodrigo Duterte, has been declared 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 the Kingdom of Jesus Christ over the sex trafficking and abuse of “pastorals” — young women within the KoJC selected to work as personal assistants to Quiboloy.

The following year, Quiboloy was sanctioned by the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control along with 40 other individuals and entities for their supposed connection to corruption or human rights abuses across nine countries.

Meanwhile, the plea deal entered into by KoJC member Marissa Duenas in the United States will be used in the trafficking case against Quiboloy in the Philippines, the Department of Justice said.

Court records in the US showed Duenas admitted that from 2015 to 2020 there was an agreement between her and others to commit marriage fraud.

Justice Assistant Secretary Mico Clavano said that unless it is introduced in the country’s judicial system the charges cannot have an official effect. But since it was in the media, government prosecutors will use it since it was admitted to by a co-respondent of Quiboloy.