Thank you, Pastor Apollo and FPRRD
What is not strange is that what befell Pastor Apollo and former President Duterte happened under the present dispensation, which they had both helped.
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What is not strange is that what befell Pastor Apollo and former President Duterte happened under the present dispensation, which they had both helped.
The grand opening of the world’s biggest covered arena is as awe-inspiring as the magnificent structure of the Kingdome inspired by a vision that Pastor Apollo C. Quiboloy had in the past.
The good pastor had always passionately described what the Kingdome will be: a place where members of his ministry, the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, could gather in worship and fellowship.
That was in the late 1980s. Pastor Apollo often articulated his vision to his personal friend, then Davao City Mayor Rodrigo R. Duterte.
What brought the two together is rarely talked about, but I had the rare opportunity to listen to their exchanges after the maiden segment of the pastor’s “Give Us This Day” program on SMNI TV, where the duo invited me to participate as guest interviewer.
That was one of my most intimidating experiences as a community journalist, but the opportunity to get close to these famous personalities gave me veritable courage.
Over snacks after the interview, Mayor Duterte began a more intimate conversation about how the two of them were brought together. Early in Pastor Apollo’s ministry and Duterte’s political career, both were surviving on shoestring budgets. The mayor drove a rickety Volkswagen, and so did the pastor. Every so often, they would meet in a Volks repair shop, and this welded their friendship.
From seven followers, Pastor Apollo’s KoJC now boasts six million members in the country and two million more worldwide. He moved around the country in choppers and SUVs, and preached in foreign countries, flying there in an executive jet. Not a few of these were donated by people who were touched by the pastor’s message.
In the meantime, his friend Mayor Duterte was catapulted to the highest apogee of political power and was elected President of the Philippines.
Pastor Apollo unrelentingly forged on with his ministry. Early on, he preached on air over a local radio station where, like me, he was a block-timer. At times, he defaulted on payments for his airtime. But in time, he owned a radio network with 24 stations nationwide. His cup runneth over, and Davao woke up one day with SMNI TV on air.
But there were lower elementals, obviously driven by greed, who betrayed him.
He uplifted some individuals from the quagmire of poverty and misfortune. He saved a destitute stranger from the streets of Singapore, a Pakistani whom he later appointed to manage Apollo Air. He entrusted a very close friend with a lot of things and sent his daughters to law school.
These scum absconded with enumerable things and sought asylum in the US. It was incredible to learn later that US immigration accorded them asylum status based merely on made-up stories of being maltreated by the pastor when, in truth, they were the privileged ones.
The betrayal could have discouraged Pastor Apollo, but he went on to build a school that catered to the poor, followed by the construction of his vision — the Kingdome.
Last Tuesday, the Kingdome was finally inaugurated. I need not delve into that, as many accounts, along with video clips and photos, have come out in the digital media. The superstructure is not only for the KoJC members but is Pastor Apollo’s gift to Davao City, the site of a new Jerusalem where he started his ministry.
The pastor, too, has created a new Garden of Eden in Barangay Tamayong, the place called Prayer Mountain. Not far away is Glory Mountain, which was reforested by KoJC members.
It is truly sad and strange that a man who dedicated his life to service to God and his people is detained on fabricated charges. But stranger still is that despite his detention and the assault of battalions of fully armed police forces on the KoJC compound, Pastor Apollo’s ministry has grown exponentially, united in faith and unbending.
His friend, former President Duterte, too, is detained on allegations of being behind the deaths of 43 victims of extrajudicial killings, for which he was charged with crimes against humanity.
But what is not strange is that what befell Pastor Apollo and former President Duterte happened under the present dispensation, which they had both helped.
But then, thank you, Pastor Apollo, for the Kingdome, the Prayer and Glory Mountain, and to Mayor President Duterte for everything which today we long for.
