Former President Rodrigo Duterte urged Pastor Apollo Quiboloy to either cooperate with the Senate investigation into alleged abuses or face arrest.
Quiboloy, a controversial televangelist preacher and spiritual advisor to Duterte, has been summoned by the Senate to answer accusations of sexual abuse and trafficking made by former followers.
In a late-night press conference on Tuesday, Duterte offered Quiboloy a blunt choice: "Just get yourself arrested. This is a free country."
"If you don't want to go there (to the Senate), then get yourself arrested. I will give him the free choice," the former President added.
Duterte further downplayed the seriousness of Quiboloy's legal troubles in the United States, where he faces charges of sex trafficking and fraud.
Dismissing them as "minor cases," Duterte claimed the US wouldn't prioritize pursuing them, allowing Quiboloy to "roam around the country" freely since he has no legal case in the Philippines.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has put Quiboloy on its "most wanted" list for supposed crimes that Duterte thought were minor. A federal warrant was issued for Quiboloy's arrest on 10 November 2021.
Quiboloy was indicted by a federal grand jury in the United States District Court for the Central District of California, Santa Ana in California, for conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking by force, fraud, and coercion and sex trafficking of children; sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion; conspiracy; and bulk cash smuggling.
“For more than a decade, Apollo Quiboloy engaged in serious human rights abuses, including a pattern of systemic and pervasive rape of girls as young as 11 years old, and he is currently on the FBI’s Most Wanted List. We are confident that Quiboloy will face justice for his heinous crimes," the US embassy in Manila said in a 21 February statement.
However, Duterte said that the US wouldn't prioritize these charges and that Quiboloy is "free to roam around the country."
The Senate Committee on Women, Children, Family relations, and Gender equality - led by Senator Risa Hontiveros - summoned Quiboloy last 22 February for missing three hearings since January regarding alleged abuses that Duterte's spiritual advisor has committed.
Hontiveros had earlier said that she would like to arrest Quiboloy for contempt of court if he didn't show up to the 5 March hearing of the Senate panel.
The Hontiveros' committee has the authority to cite Quiboloy in contempt and order his arrest and detention until he cooperates, in accordance with the Senate's procedures on panel investigations in support of the legislation.